SALT LAKE CITY — A new study at The University of Utah shows that Mormon religious experiences and sex both stimulate the same parts of the brain.

“These types of regions in the brain activate during sex, romantic and parental love, winning at gambling, drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines, really their core pleasure enduring circuits in the brain,” explained the study’s lead author Jeffrey Anderson, an associate professor of radiology and bio-engineering.

Anderson and his associates took 19 devout Mormons between 20 and 30 years old, 12 men and seven women, and had them lie in an MRI machine while they focused on Mormon religious quotes, videos and asked them to pray. The study lasted one hour.

Read the full article at Fox 13 News, or read the full study on the University of Utah website.