DePaul University, Department of Psychology, 2219 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614-3504, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2013 Aug 26;548:239-43. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2013.05.062. Epub 2013 Jun 7.
The human fear of death is marked by specific psychological reactions that affirm cultural belonging. Terror management theory explains this phenomenon with the symbolic immortality provided by collective meaning in culture. This coping has also been explained with the motive of maintaining a meaningful representation of the world. Here we show that neural patterns of activations corresponding to cultural worldview defense processes differed when images that affirmed participants' cultural heritage were preceded by death-related verbal primes versus verbal primes threatening meaning. Cultural content was drawn upon distinctly on a neural basis when facing death-related cognitions. The neural representation of cultural coping sheds light on the immediate mechanisms in compensating the human fear of death.
人类对死亡的恐惧表现出特定的心理反应，这些反应肯定了文化归属感。恐怖管理理论用文化中集体意义提供的象征性永生来解释这一现象。这种应对方式也可以用维持世界有意义的表象的动机来解释。在这里，我们表明，当肯定参与者文化遗产的图像之前出现与死亡相关的语言提示与威胁意义的语言提示时，与文化世界观防御过程相对应的神经激活模式会有所不同。当面对与死亡相关的认知时，文化内容会在神经基础上被明显地利用。文化应对的神经表现揭示了补偿人类对死亡的恐惧的即时机制。
