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Day: March 28, 2024

neural correlates of chills as shown by a frozen brain

The neural correlates of chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences

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  • Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience Article

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Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Pizzagalli, D. A., & Reggente, N. (2024). The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01168-x

Schoeller, Félix, Abhinandan Jain, et al. “The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences.” Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, Feb. 2024, doi:10.3758/s13415-024-01168-x.

@article{Schoeller_Jain_Pizzagalli_Reggente_2024, title={The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences}, url={https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01168-x}, DOI={10.3758/s13415-024-01168-x}, journal={Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience}, author={Schoeller, Félix and Jain, Abhinandan and Pizzagalli, Diego A. and Reggente, Nicco}, year={2024}, month=feb }

Neural Correlates of Chills: How the Brain Creates a Powerful Emotional Response

Aesthetic chills are a universal emotional response characterized by shivers and goosebumps in reaction to specific rewarding or threatening stimuli, such as music, films, or speech. What makes this phenomenon so intriguing is that it simultaneously involves subjective feelings and measurable physical sensations, providing a tangible link between the mind and body.

The Role of Brain Regions and Networks

Recent research has shed light on the specific brain regions and networks involved in the experience of aesthetic chills. Understanding the neural correlates of chills helps us delve into fascinating questions about the mind-body connection.

Our review highlights key questions that aesthetic chills can help us answer: How precisely do bodily sensations influence emotional experiences? What is the role of prediction and uncertainty in shaping our feelings? And how does the brain balance processing rewards versus threats?

neural correlates of chills are vast and span the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem

The Mesocorticolimbic System: A Key Player in Chills

By synthesizing evidence from neuroimaging studies, we propose that aesthetic chills engage a distinct brain network involving the mesocorticolimbic system. This network includes regions like the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAcc), amygdala (AMG), and frontal areas such as the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Crucially, the VTA releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical for reward processing and motivation, throughout these regions.

Chills, Reward, Learning, and the Brain’s Predictions

neural correlates of chills seem to depend on the learning rate

We suggest that aesthetic chills may correspond to peaks in consummatory pleasure, marking the transition from the “wanting” phase of reward to the “liking” and “learning” phases. This perspective aligns with the observation that chills often occur during the culmination of an aesthetic experience, such as the resolution of a narrative or musical tension.

neural correlates of chills seem associated with the anticipation and reward response.

Interoception and the Insula

The involvement of the insula, a region linked to interoception (the perception of internal bodily states), highlights the importance of peripheral signals in shaping the emotional quality of chills. This is further supported by findings that manipulating bodily sensations, such as enhancing the feeling of cold, can intensify the experience of chills and its downstream effects on cognition.

Individual Differences and the Experience of Chills

Interestingly, our susceptibility to aesthetic chills seems to be influenced by individual differences in personality traits like openness to experience and absorption, as well as biological factors such as gene variants affecting neurotransmitter function. This suggests that our propensity for chills is shaped by a complex interplay of psychological and neurobiological factors.

Dopamine, Prediction Errors, and Learning

We propose that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a key role in aesthetic chills by encoding the precision of our brain’s predictions. When an aesthetic stimulus violates our expectations in a way that is ultimately rewarding, dopamine release signals the need to update our predictions, enhancing memory consolidation and learning. This process may underlie the heightened attention and memory effects observed during chills.

Mental Health Implications

Understanding the neurobiology of aesthetic chills has important implications for mental health. Dysfunctional precision encoding of prediction errors by dopamine is implicated in conditions like schizophrenia, depression, and addiction. Preliminary evidence suggests that experiencing aesthetic chills may help mitigate anhedonia (loss of pleasure) in depression by improving reward learning and shifting maladaptive self-beliefs. The therapeutic potential of chills lies in their ability to promote positive emotional states and cognitive flexibility.

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this predicting chills image shows a row of people and one with frost on their glasses

Predicting Chills – Characterizing Individual Differences in Peak Emotional Response

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Schoeller, F., Christov-Moore, L., Lynch, C., Diot, T., & Reggente, N. (2024). Predicting Individual Differences in Peak Emotional Response. PNAS Nexus, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae066

Schoeller, Félix, Leonardo Christov-Moore, et al. “Predicting Individual Differences in Peak Emotional Response.” PNAS Nexus, vol. 3, no. 3, Feb. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae066.

@article{Schoeller_Christov-Moore_Lynch_Diot_Reggente_2024, title={Predicting Individual Differences in Peak Emotional Response}, volume={3}, url={https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae066}, DOI={10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae066}, number={3}, journal={PNAS Nexus}, author={Schoeller, Félix and Christov-Moore, Leonardo and Lynch, Caitlin and Diot, Thomas and Reggente, Nicco}, year={2024}, month=feb }

Predicting Chills: Unraveling the Factors Behind a Powerful Emotional Response

Have you ever felt a shiver run down your spine when deeply moved by a piece of music or a scene in a film? Those “aesthetic chills” offer a fascinating glimpse into the interplay of our emotions and our individual experiences. In a recent study published in PNAS Nexus, we aimed to understand what makes some people more likely to feel these chills.

The Study Design

Our approach was multifaceted:

  • Stimuli Selection: We used innovative data mining techniques on social media platforms to curate a database of stimuli with a proven track record of inducing chills.
  • Diverse Participants: We exposed a diverse group of over 2,900 participants from Southern California to these stimuli. Data on their demographics, personality traits, and emotional responses were carefully collected.

Key Findings: Who’s Most Likely to Experience Chills

Our results were illuminating:

  • Demographics: Certain demographic factors, such as being middle-aged, highly educated, and male, were associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing chills.
  • Personality’s Impact: We also identified specific personality traits, like extraversion and conscientiousness, that were linked to more intense chills responses.
  • Microcultures and Resonance: Perhaps the most intriguing finding was the use of latent class analysis to uncover hidden “microcultures.” These subgroups, characterized by specific combinations of demographic and psychological attributes, were significantly more likely to experience chills. This points to the role of cultural resonance in shaping these emotional experiences.
predicting chills is hard - this image shows a bunch of people in a where's waldo style backdrop all looking at different pieces of content

Predictive Power: Can We Foresee Chills?

We pushed the analysis further by employing machine learning algorithms to see if we could predict the occurrence and intensity of chills based on a combination of personal characteristics. Our models achieved up to 73.5% accuracy in predicting whether someone would experience chills and accounted for 48% of the variance in chills intensity.

The Significance of Our Work

This study has far-reaching implications. By identifying the key factors that shape our susceptibility to aesthetic chills, we open doors to more targeted and personalized approaches to studying these experiences in a laboratory setting. Furthermore, understanding these “chills profiles” could pave the way for using music, art, or other stimuli in therapeutic contexts – perhaps helping reduce symptoms like anhedonia in depression.

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