Abstract
Spiritual practice, such as prayer or meditation, is associated with focusing attention on internal states and self-awareness processes. As these cognitive control mechanisms presumably are also important for neurofeedback (NF), we investigated whether people who pray frequently (N = 20) show a higher ability of self-control over their own brain activity compared to a control group of individuals who rarely pray (N = 20). All participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and one session of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR, 12–15 Hz) based NF training. Individuals who reported a high frequency of prayer showed improved NF performance compared to individuals who reported a low frequency of prayer. The individual ability to control one’s own brain activity was related to volumetric aspects of the brain. In the low frequency of prayer group, gray matter volumes in the right insula and inferior frontal gyrus were positively associated with NF performance, supporting prior findings that more general self-control networks are involved in successful NF learning. In contrast, participants who prayed regularly showed a negative association between gray matter volume in the left medial orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann’s area (BA) 10) and NF performance. Due to their regular spiritual practice, they might have been more skillful in gating incoming information provided by the NF system and avoiding task-irrelevant thoughts.
Highlights
Neurofeedback (NF) is a type of biofeedback in which one can learn to voluntarily modulate one’s own brain signals by means of real-time feedback of specific neuronal responses
According to the results of the questionnaire data, the high frequency of prayer (HF) group showed significantly higher scores in the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) compared to the low frequency of prayer (LF) group
We investigated associations between brain structure and the ability to gain control over one’s own brain activity in individuals reporting a high frequency of prayer (HF), considered as experts in self-awareness processes and focusing attention on internal states, and people reporting a low frequency of prayer (LF)
Summary
Neurofeedback (NF) is a type of biofeedback in which one can learn to voluntarily modulate one’s own brain signals by means of real-time feedback of specific neuronal responses. A substantial portion of potential NF users (about 15%–30%) fail to gain significant control over their own brain signals even after repeated training sessions (Allison and Neuper, 2010; Blankertz et al, 2010; Kober et al, 2015a). Several neurophysiological predictors are relevant for successful NF performance (Neumann and Birbaumer, 2003; Kübler et al, 2004; Blankertz et al, 2010; EnriquezGeppert et al, 2013; Halder et al, 2013a,b; Ninaus et al, 2013, 2015; Reichert et al, 2015) as well as psychological factors, such as control believes, ‘‘locus of control’’ (LOC), degree of concentration, mood, mastery confidence, motivation, or mental strategy used (Burde and Blankertz, 2006; Nijboer et al, 2008; Kleih et al, 2010; Hammer et al, 2012; Kober et al, 2013; Witte et al, 2013). The existence of a cognitive key factor for successful self-regulation of brain signals is still elusive (Wood et al, 2014)
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