Neuroimaging of prayer: Questions of validity.

Abstract

Studies investigating the brain in relation to religious experiences via neuroimaging tools have increased considerably. Most assume without verification that religious experience (e.g., prayer) while inside an imaging machine is the same as in normal settings. Addressing the validity of this assumption, we utilized a mock fMRI to compare self-reported typical prayer experience and 3 experimental conditions (silent room, initial fMRI, and acclimated fMRI). Forty-two individuals participated. In multiple aspects the "typical" and silent room conditions were indistinguishable; however, typical and fMRI conditions differed significantly. In sum, it was not clear what previous studies measured. These findings highlight the need for imaging research exploring religious experiences to include thorough debriefing protocols to disambiguate interpretations and facilitate meta-analytic efforts.

God Spots in the Brain: Nine Categories of Unasked, Unanswered Questions

“…The validity of fMRI is called into question, given that thoughts inside a noisy MRI scanner are unlikely the same as normal thoughts. Ladd et al (2015) suggested that the current fMRI technology may be overly disruptive for cognitive research, in that it is hard to believe that "wearing ear protection inside a 60-cm tube with 110 dB of ambient noise would be similar to typical prayer practice." Prayer-on-demand in any experimental context is odd compared to how people usually pray, and the fMRI context exacerbates that problem.…”