Rewarding prayers

We report a highly significant regional increase of the BOLD response in the caudate nucleus in a group of Danish Christians while performing silent religious prayers. The effect was found in a main-effect analysis of high-structured and low-structured religious recitals relative to comparable secular recitals and to a non-narrative baseline. This supports the hypothesis that religious prayer as a form of frequently recurring behavior is capable of stimulating the dopaminergic reward system in practicing individuals. It extends recent research which demonstrates a relation between interpersonal trust and activation in the dopaminergic system to also encompass relations to abstract entities. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.