Cognitive dissonance meets neuroscience: The neural substrates underlying cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) consists in inconsistencies among cognitions that generate an uncomfortable motivating state. This construct aroused researchers' curiosity for the past fifty years and, recently, the interest in its neural substrates has increased. This review aims to investigate this recent approach to the subject. After a first part in which the origins , the features of Festinger's theory are recalled, we focused on scientific literature exploring the neural basis of cognitive dissonance's occurrence and its resolution. The re-view ends by discussing some theoretical and methodological implications related to cogni-tive dissonance's empirical investigation and possible solutions.