Social Neuroscience
June 1, 2022
Yoshija Walter, Thomas Koenig
Not much is known about large-scale brain activation patterns in religious states of mind and previous studies have not set an emphasis on experience. The present study investigated the phenomenon of religious experiences through microstate analysis, and it was the first neurocognitive research to tackle the dimension of experience directly. Hence, a total of 60 evangelical Christians...
Social Neuroscience
February 1, 2019
Charles Robinson, Mika Armenta, Angela Combs et al.
Positive emotional perceptions and healthy emotional intelligence (EI) are important for social functioning. In this study, we investigated whether loving kindness meditation (LKM) combined with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would facilitate improvements in EI and changes in affective experience of visual stimuli. LKM has been shown to increase positive emotional...
Social Neuroscience
June 1, 2018
Mei-Kei Leung, Way K W Lau, Chetwyn C H Chan et al.
Recent evidence suggests that the effects of meditation practice on affective processing and resilience have the potential to induce neuroplastic changes within the amygdala. Notably, literature speculates that meditation training may reduce amygdala activity during negative affective processing. Nonetheless, studies have thus far not verified this speculation. In this longitudinal study,...
Social Neuroscience
February 1, 2018
Michael A Ferguson, Jared A. Nielsen, Jace B King et al.
High-level cognitive and emotional experience arises from brain activity, but the specific brain substrates for religious and spiritual euphoria remain unclear. We demonstrate using functional magnetic resonance imaging scans in 19 devout Mormons that a recognizable feeling central to their devotional practice was reproducibly associated with activation in nucleus accumbens, ventromedial...
Social Neuroscience
January 20, 2016
Anya K. Bershad, Jessica Weafer, Matthew G. Kirkpatrick et al.
35 citations
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") enhances desire to socialize and feelings of empathy, which are thought to be related to increased oxytocin levels. Thus, variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) may influence responses to the drug. Here, we examined the influence of a single OXTR nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on responses to MDMA in humans. Based on findings that...
Social Neuroscience
June 25, 2009
Glenn Dumont, Fred C.g.j. Sweep, R. van der Steen et al.
238 citations
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or "ecstasy") is a recreationally used drug with remarkable and characteristic prosocial effects. In spite of abundant attention in the scientific literature, the mechanism of its prosocial effects has not been elucidated in humans. Recently, research in animals has suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin may induce these effects. In a double blind,...
Social Neuroscience
June 21, 2008
Murray R. Thompson, Glenn E. Hunt, Iain S. Mcgregor
48 citations
The popular drug 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "Ecstasy", "the Love Drug") produces feelings of love and closeness in humans and induces analogous prosocial and antiaggressive effects in laboratory animals. Here we examined the specific brain regions that may be involved in these prosocial effects. Male Wistar rats were pretreated with a moderate dose of MDMA (5 mg/kg) or vehicle and...