TY - JOUR
T1 - Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Affects Implicit Spiritual Self-Representations
AU - Finisguerra, Alessandra
AU - Crescentini, Cristiano
AU - Urgesi, Cosimo
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Recently, the empirical interest in religiousness and spirituality has grown, showing the association between the activity of a complex network of subcortical and fronto-parietal areas and explicit and implicit religious/spiritual representations. Importantly, while the causal link between parietal stimulation and implicit religiousness/spirituality has been demonstrated, the role of subcortical and medial cortical areas has not been directly investigated. Here, we assessed how implicit and explicit religious or spiritual representations are modulated by transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS), a novel non-invasive method to stimulate subcortical and medial cortical structures. Implicit and explicit representations were tested with Religious, Spiritual and Self-esteem (as control) Implicit Association Tests and questionnaires. Active-tVNS, compared to sham-tVNS, affected implicit spiritual, but not religious or control self-representations, reducing the strength of the automatic association between the self and the spiritual dimension. Explicit self-representations were left unchanged. Findings shed new light on the neurobiological mechanisms of implicit spirituality.
AB - Recently, the empirical interest in religiousness and spirituality has grown, showing the association between the activity of a complex network of subcortical and fronto-parietal areas and explicit and implicit religious/spiritual representations. Importantly, while the causal link between parietal stimulation and implicit religiousness/spirituality has been demonstrated, the role of subcortical and medial cortical areas has not been directly investigated. Here, we assessed how implicit and explicit religious or spiritual representations are modulated by transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS), a novel non-invasive method to stimulate subcortical and medial cortical structures. Implicit and explicit representations were tested with Religious, Spiritual and Self-esteem (as control) Implicit Association Tests and questionnaires. Active-tVNS, compared to sham-tVNS, affected implicit spiritual, but not religious or control self-representations, reducing the strength of the automatic association between the self and the spiritual dimension. Explicit self-representations were left unchanged. Findings shed new light on the neurobiological mechanisms of implicit spirituality.
KW - Bodily-Self
KW - Implicit Association Test
KW - Religiousness
KW - Spirituality
KW - transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85067864802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.05.059
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.05.059
M3 - Article
C2 - 31176701
AN - SCOPUS:85067864802
VL - 412
SP - 144
EP - 159
JO - Neuroscience
JF - Neuroscience
SN - 0306-4522
ER -