An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system
Although religious belief is often claimed to help with physical ailments including pain, it is unclear what psychological and neural mechanisms underlie the influence of religious belief on pain. By analogy to other top-down processes of pain modulation we hypothesized that religious belief helps b...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2009
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| _version_ | 1797072745535635456 |
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| author | Wiech, K Farias, M Kahane, G Shackel, N Tiede, W Tracey, I |
| author2 | International Association for the Study of Pain |
| author_facet | International Association for the Study of Pain Wiech, K Farias, M Kahane, G Shackel, N Tiede, W Tracey, I |
| author_sort | Wiech, K |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Although religious belief is often claimed to help with physical ailments including pain, it is unclear what psychological and neural mechanisms underlie the influence of religious belief on pain. By analogy to other top-down processes of pain modulation we hypothesized that religious belief helps believers reinterpret the emotional significance of pain, leading to emotional detachment from it. Recent findings on emotion regulation support a role for the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), a region also important for driving top-down pain inhibitory circuits. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in practicing Catholics and avowed atheists and agnostics during painful stimulation, here we show the existence of a context-dependent form of analgesia that was triggered by the presentation of an image with a religious content but not by the presentation of a non-religious image. As confirmed by behavioral data, contemplation of the religious image eneabled the religious group to detach themselves from the experience of pain. Critically, this context-dependent modulation of pain specifically engaged the right VLPFC, whereas group-specific preferential liking of one of the pictures was associated with activation in the ventral midbrain. We suggest that religious belief might provide a framework that allows individuals to engage known pain-regulatory brain processes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:12:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:65d7cc8c-66fa-437a-bdb5-e66612fad37e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:12:07Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:65d7cc8c-66fa-437a-bdb5-e66612fad37e2022-03-26T18:28:05ZAn fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief systemJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:65d7cc8c-66fa-437a-bdb5-e66612fad37ePsychologyAnaestheticsTheology and ReligionPhilosophyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetElsevier2009Wiech, KFarias, MKahane, GShackel, NTiede, WTracey, IInternational Association for the Study of PainAlthough religious belief is often claimed to help with physical ailments including pain, it is unclear what psychological and neural mechanisms underlie the influence of religious belief on pain. By analogy to other top-down processes of pain modulation we hypothesized that religious belief helps believers reinterpret the emotional significance of pain, leading to emotional detachment from it. Recent findings on emotion regulation support a role for the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), a region also important for driving top-down pain inhibitory circuits. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in practicing Catholics and avowed atheists and agnostics during painful stimulation, here we show the existence of a context-dependent form of analgesia that was triggered by the presentation of an image with a religious content but not by the presentation of a non-religious image. As confirmed by behavioral data, contemplation of the religious image eneabled the religious group to detach themselves from the experience of pain. Critically, this context-dependent modulation of pain specifically engaged the right VLPFC, whereas group-specific preferential liking of one of the pictures was associated with activation in the ventral midbrain. We suggest that religious belief might provide a framework that allows individuals to engage known pain-regulatory brain processes. |
| spellingShingle | Psychology Anaesthetics Theology and Religion Philosophy Wiech, K Farias, M Kahane, G Shackel, N Tiede, W Tracey, I An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title | An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title_full | An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title_fullStr | An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title_full_unstemmed | An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title_short | An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| title_sort | fmri study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system |
| topic | Psychology Anaesthetics Theology and Religion Philosophy |
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