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Updated: May 10, 2026

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
Culture and its neurofunctional correlates when death is in mind
Verena Graupmann1, Isabella Peres, Tonia Michaely
1DePaul University, Department of Psychology, 2219 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614-3504, USA. vgraupma@depaul.edu
Abstract:
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.
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