Listening in on people's conversations with God and Santa

William Atkins
Monday, 13 April 2009 19:12

Science - Biology

Danish researchers wanted to find out if religious people think they are really talking to a real entity ('God') or a fictitious one ('Santa Claus'). MRI scans to the prefrontal cortex in the brain were the key to their conclusion.


Dr. Uffe Schiødt, from the University of Aarhus, studied twenty very religious people of the Christian faith within Denmark.

Schiødt, along with Hans Stodkilde-Horgensen, Armin W. Geertz, and Andreas Roepstorff, all from various departments within the University of Aarhus, reported their conclusions in the article “Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer” within the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. It was published online on February 25, 2009.

They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the brain on their subjects, which measure blood flow and such activity in the brain.

They stated in the abstract to their paper, “We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians.”

While being scanned the participants were asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer (a formal “religious” activity) or a nursery rhyme (a formal “secular” control activity).

They found identical parts of the brain become activated during each activity, a part of the brain that is associated with “rehearsal and repetition.” (See New Scientist article, later referenced).

Part two of the study is found discussed on Page two.