bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 22, 2026
Sergio Elías Hernández, Katya Rubia, Oscar Perez-Diaz et al.
preprint
The perception of God can be as a transcendent entity that is infinite and outside of human beings, typical for religious traditions, or as an immanent entity that is outside and inside of human beings, typical for mystical traditions. These different perceptions of God may be associated with different neural correlates depending on which God we pray to. To elucidate the neural correlates of...
Scientific Reports
April 25, 2025
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Sergio Elías Hernández, Lucy L Brown et al.
1 citation
Neuroscience research has associated meditation practice with effects on cognitive, motivational and emotional processes. These processes are mediated by several brain circuits, including the striatum and its associated cortical connections. The aim of this study was to focus on the striatum and test how its functional connectivity is affected in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga...
BMC Neuroscience
November 13, 2023
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Uffe Schjoedt et al.
Sahaja Yoga Meditation draws on many religious traditions and uses a variety of techniques including Christian prayer to reach a state known as thoughtless awareness, or mental silence. While there are many studies on the neural correlates of meditation, few studies have focused on the neural correlates of praying. Thus, the aim of our research was to study the neural activity associated with...
Neuroscience
February 10, 2018
Sergio Elías Hernández, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Yaqiong Xiao et al.
Some meditation techniques teach the practitioner to achieve the state of mental silence. The aim of this study was to investigate brain regions that are associated with their volume and functional connectivity (FC) with the depth of mental silence in long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Twenty-three long-term practitioners of this meditation were scanned using Magnetic Resonance...
PLoS One
March 3, 2016
Sergio Elías Hernández, José Suero, Alfonso Barros et al.
Objectives: To investigate regional differences in grey matter volume associated with the practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Design: Twenty three experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty three non-meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging and their grey matter volume were compared using Voxel-Based...