fMRI scans were performed on 19 church members with volunteers told to perform four tasks in a bid to stimulate spiritual feelings, as part of the ‘Religious Brain Project’.
The activities involved resting, watching control and stimulating religious videos, quotations by Mormon and other religious leaders, as well as religious books.
Lead author Michael Ferguson, a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Utah, has this to say ‘When our study participants were instructed to think about a saviour, about being with their families for eternity, about their heavenly rewards, their brains and bodies physically responded,’
According fMRI scans, the research revealed spiritual feelings stimulated the "nucleus accumbens" – a part of the brain involved with the processing of reward.
This brain region also plays a role in addiction.
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