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. 2021 Jun 16;11(1):12662.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91322-z.

Nostalgia enhances detection of death threat: neural and behavioral evidence

Ziyan Yang  1   2 , Constantine Sedikides  3 , Keise Izuma  3   4 , Tim Wildschut  3 , Emiko S Kashima  5 , Yu L L Luo  1   2 , Jun Chen  1   2 , Huajian Cai  6   7
Affiliations

Nostalgia enhances detection of death threat: neural and behavioral evidence

Ziyan Yang et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

An experiment examined the potency of nostalgia-a sentimental longing for one's past-to facilitate detection of death-related stimuli, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral techniques (i.e., judgmental accuracy, reaction times). We hypothesized and found that, at the neural level, nostalgic (relative to control) participants evinced more intense activation in right amygdala in response to death-related (vs. neutral) words. We also hypothesized and found that, at the behavioral level, nostalgic (relative to control) participants manifested greater accuracy in judging whether two death-related (vs. neutral) words belonged in the same category. Exploratory analyses indicated that nostalgic (relative to control) participants did not show faster reaction times to death-related (vs. neutral) words. In all, nostalgia appeared to aid in death threat detection. We consider implications for the relevant literatures.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results of the ROI analyses on left and right amygdala (defined by anatomical regions). Νostalgic (relative to control) participants showed greater right amygdala (but not left amygdala) activation in response to death-related versus neutral words. Error bars show standard errors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Examples of stimuli (i.e., chewing gum): nostalgia (left) and control (right). The left object depicts the popular chewing gum from childhood; the right object depicts the contemporary popular chewing gum.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Word relationship task: participants judged as fast and accurately as they could whether two words presented in rapid succession belonged to the same category.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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