@article {Azari:April 2001:0953-816X:1649, author = "Azari, Nina P.", author = "Nickel, Janpeter", author = "Wunderlich, Gilbert", author = "Niedeggen, Michael", author = "Hefter, Harald", author = "Tellmann, Lutz", author = "Herzog, Hans", author = "Stoerig, Petra", author = "Birnbacher, Dieter", author = "Seitz, Rudiger J.", title = "Neural correlates of religious experience", journal = "European Journal of Neuroscience", volume = "13", year = "April 2001", abstract = "

The commonsense view of religious experience is that it is a preconceptual, immediate affective event. Work in philosophy and psychology, however, suggest that religious experience is an attributional cognitive phenomenon. Here the neural correlates of a religious experience are investigated using functional neuroimaging. During religious recitation, self-identified religious subjects activated a frontal-parietal circuit, composed of the dorsolateral prefrontal, dorsomedial frontal and medial parietal cortex. Prior studies indicate that these areas play a profound role in sustaining reflexive evaluation of thought. Thus, religious experience may be a cognitive process which, nonetheless, feels immediate.", pages = "1649-1652(4)", url = "http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/ejn/2001/00000013/00000008/art00018" doi = "doi:10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01527.x" }