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Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat

The association between moral purity and physical cleanliness has been widely discussed recently. Studies found that moral threat initiates the need of physical cleanliness, but actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning have inconsistent effects on subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Here, we...

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Autores principales: Tang, Honghong, Lu, Xiaping, Su, Rui, Liang, Zilu, Mai, Xiaoqin, Liu, Chao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5490681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28338887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx036
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author Tang, Honghong
Lu, Xiaping
Su, Rui
Liang, Zilu
Mai, Xiaoqin
Liu, Chao
author_facet Tang, Honghong
Lu, Xiaping
Su, Rui
Liang, Zilu
Mai, Xiaoqin
Liu, Chao
author_sort Tang, Honghong
collection PubMed
description The association between moral purity and physical cleanliness has been widely discussed recently. Studies found that moral threat initiates the need of physical cleanliness, but actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning have inconsistent effects on subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the underlying neural mechanism of actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning. After recalling moral transgression with strong feelings of guilt and shame, participants either actually cleaned their faces with a wipe or were primed with cleanliness through viewing its pictures. Results showed that actual physical cleaning reduced the spontaneous brain activities in the right insula and MPFC, regions that involved in embodied moral emotion processing, while priming of cleaning decreased activities in the right superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, regions that participated in executive control processing. Additionally, actual physical cleaning also changed functional connectivity between insula/MPFC and emotion related regions, whereas priming of cleaning modified connectivity within both moral and sensorimotor areas. These findings revealed that actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning led to changes in different brain regions and networks, providing neural evidence for the inconsistent effects of cleanliness on subsequent attitudes and behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-54906812017-07-05 Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat Tang, Honghong Lu, Xiaping Su, Rui Liang, Zilu Mai, Xiaoqin Liu, Chao Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Original Articles The association between moral purity and physical cleanliness has been widely discussed recently. Studies found that moral threat initiates the need of physical cleanliness, but actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning have inconsistent effects on subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the underlying neural mechanism of actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning. After recalling moral transgression with strong feelings of guilt and shame, participants either actually cleaned their faces with a wipe or were primed with cleanliness through viewing its pictures. Results showed that actual physical cleaning reduced the spontaneous brain activities in the right insula and MPFC, regions that involved in embodied moral emotion processing, while priming of cleaning decreased activities in the right superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, regions that participated in executive control processing. Additionally, actual physical cleaning also changed functional connectivity between insula/MPFC and emotion related regions, whereas priming of cleaning modified connectivity within both moral and sensorimotor areas. These findings revealed that actual physical cleaning and priming of cleaning led to changes in different brain regions and networks, providing neural evidence for the inconsistent effects of cleanliness on subsequent attitudes and behaviors. Oxford University Press 2017-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5490681/ /pubmed/28338887 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx036 Text en © The Author(s) (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Original Articles
Tang, Honghong
Lu, Xiaping
Su, Rui
Liang, Zilu
Mai, Xiaoqin
Liu, Chao
Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title_full Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title_fullStr Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title_full_unstemmed Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title_short Washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
title_sort washing away your sins in the brain: physical cleaning and priming of cleaning recruit different brain networks after moral threat
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5490681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28338887
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx036
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