Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study
IntroductionDuring hard times, religious chanting/praying is widely practiced to cope with negative or stressful emotions. While the underlying neural mechanism has not been investigated to a sufficient extent. A previous event-related potential study showed that religious chanting could significant...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.548856/full |
| _version_ | 1817997343237079040 |
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| author | Junling Gao Stavros Skouras Hang Kin Leung Bonnie Wai Yan Wu Huijun Wu Chunqi Chang Hin Hung Sik |
| author_facet | Junling Gao Stavros Skouras Hang Kin Leung Bonnie Wai Yan Wu Huijun Wu Chunqi Chang Hin Hung Sik |
| author_sort | Junling Gao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionDuring hard times, religious chanting/praying is widely practiced to cope with negative or stressful emotions. While the underlying neural mechanism has not been investigated to a sufficient extent. A previous event-related potential study showed that religious chanting could significantly diminish the late-positive potential induced by negative stimuli. However, the regulatory role of subcortical brain regions, especially the amygdala, in this process remains unclear. This multi-modal MRI study aimed to further clarify the neural mechanism underlying the effectiveness of religious chanting for emotion regulation.MethodologyTwenty-one participants were recruited for a multi-modal MRI study. Their age range was 40–52 years, 11 were female and all participants had at least 1 year of experience in religious chanting. The participants were asked to view neutral/fearful pictures while practicing religious chanting (i.e., chanting the name of Buddha Amitābha), non-religious chanting (i.e., chanting the name of Santa Claus), or no chanting. A 3.0 T Philips MRI scanner was used to collect the data and SPM12 was used to analyze the imaging data. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to explore the potential hemispheric asymmetries in practitioners.ResultsCompared to non-religious chanting and no chanting, higher brain activity was observed in several brain regions when participants performed religious chanting while viewing fearful images. These brain regions included the fusiform gyrus, left parietal lobule, and prefrontal cortex, as well as subcortical regions such as the amygdala, thalamus, and midbrain. Importantly, significantly more activity was observed in the left than in the right amygdala during religious chanting. VBM showed hemispheric asymmetries, mainly in the thalamus, putamen, hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum; areas related to skill learning and biased memory formation.ConclusionThis preliminary study showed that repetitive religious chanting may induce strong brain activity, especially in response to stimuli with negative valence. Practicing religious chanting may structurally lateralize a network of brain areas involved in biased memory formation. These functional and structural results suggest that religious chanting helps to form a positive schema to counterbalance negative emotions. Future randomized control studies are necessary to confirm the neural mechanism related to religious chanting in coping with stress and negative emotions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T02:36:46Z |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5153 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T02:36:46Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
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| series | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-9484c74edfd04dbd916d4c028824cd052022-12-22T02:17:22ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience1662-51532020-11-011410.3389/fnbeh.2020.548856548856Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI StudyJunling Gao0Stavros Skouras1Hang Kin Leung2Bonnie Wai Yan Wu3Huijun Wu4Chunqi Chang5Hin Hung Sik6Buddhism and Science Research Lab, Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong KongDepartment of Biological and Medical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, NorwayBuddhism and Science Research Lab, Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong KongBuddhism and Science Research Lab, Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong KongSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaBuddhism and Science Research Lab, Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong KongIntroductionDuring hard times, religious chanting/praying is widely practiced to cope with negative or stressful emotions. While the underlying neural mechanism has not been investigated to a sufficient extent. A previous event-related potential study showed that religious chanting could significantly diminish the late-positive potential induced by negative stimuli. However, the regulatory role of subcortical brain regions, especially the amygdala, in this process remains unclear. This multi-modal MRI study aimed to further clarify the neural mechanism underlying the effectiveness of religious chanting for emotion regulation.MethodologyTwenty-one participants were recruited for a multi-modal MRI study. Their age range was 40–52 years, 11 were female and all participants had at least 1 year of experience in religious chanting. The participants were asked to view neutral/fearful pictures while practicing religious chanting (i.e., chanting the name of Buddha Amitābha), non-religious chanting (i.e., chanting the name of Santa Claus), or no chanting. A 3.0 T Philips MRI scanner was used to collect the data and SPM12 was used to analyze the imaging data. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to explore the potential hemispheric asymmetries in practitioners.ResultsCompared to non-religious chanting and no chanting, higher brain activity was observed in several brain regions when participants performed religious chanting while viewing fearful images. These brain regions included the fusiform gyrus, left parietal lobule, and prefrontal cortex, as well as subcortical regions such as the amygdala, thalamus, and midbrain. Importantly, significantly more activity was observed in the left than in the right amygdala during religious chanting. VBM showed hemispheric asymmetries, mainly in the thalamus, putamen, hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum; areas related to skill learning and biased memory formation.ConclusionThis preliminary study showed that repetitive religious chanting may induce strong brain activity, especially in response to stimuli with negative valence. Practicing religious chanting may structurally lateralize a network of brain areas involved in biased memory formation. These functional and structural results suggest that religious chanting helps to form a positive schema to counterbalance negative emotions. Future randomized control studies are necessary to confirm the neural mechanism related to religious chanting in coping with stress and negative emotions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.548856/fullemotion regulationreligious chantingfunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)religious schemabrain asymmetryamygdala |
| spellingShingle | Junling Gao Stavros Skouras Hang Kin Leung Bonnie Wai Yan Wu Huijun Wu Chunqi Chang Hin Hung Sik Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience emotion regulation religious chanting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) religious schema brain asymmetry amygdala |
| title | Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study |
| title_full | Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study |
| title_fullStr | Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study |
| title_short | Repetitive Religious Chanting Invokes Positive Emotional Schema to Counterbalance Fear: A Multi-Modal Functional and Structural MRI Study |
| title_sort | repetitive religious chanting invokes positive emotional schema to counterbalance fear a multi modal functional and structural mri study |
| topic | emotion regulation religious chanting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) religious schema brain asymmetry amygdala |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.548856/full |
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