Existential neuroscience: A review and brain model of coping with death awareness

During the last 5 years or so an increasing number of neuroscientific studies from various research teams have explored brain correlates of mortality awareness and thus led to the establishment of a new field of investigation within the cognitive and affective neurosciences: existential neuroscience. This chapter reviews existing evidence on brain responses to thoughts of death. Mortality reminders evoke activations in brain areas that are typically known to be involved in self-regulation. Reduced activation in the insula appears to be special for mortality threat as compared to nonmortality threat. We relate the neural findings to existing evidence on psychological consequences of death awareness and attempt to integrate them in a preliminary neuroscience model of mortality awareness.