ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a quick review of recent neuroscientific findings in the field of existential neuroscience and formulating questions for future research. It also reviews a number of experimental neuroscientific studies investigating effects of mortality reminders on brain activation. Future studies, both behavioral and neuroscientific, might therefore attempt to unveil the factors that may determine under which circumstances death awareness leads to amygdala responses and associated affective processes, conscious or unconscious. To people's knowledge, there are no sufficiently similar neurophysiological studies that would form a background against which to discuss the results of this event-related potential (ERP) study. Neural evidence for processes occurring in response to death-related stimuli comes from a study using electroencephalography (EEG). Recent research has shown that non-death-related threats, including feelings of low control, uncertainty, or meaning violations can also cause distal defense. Death-related thoughts and emotions could be prevented by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) from becoming processed consciously or excessively.
