The Holy Shiver: How Aesthetic Chills Calibrate the Art We’re Drawn Toward
Why do cultures, despite having no contact, converge on similar aesthetic practices that seem to serve no obvious purpose? Manvir Singh’s concept of subjective functionalism suggests that cultural forms persist because they feel good, guided by positive emotions. Our exploration of aesthetic chills—those involuntary shivers during art or insight—reveals they are not just pleasurable but signal validation of our understanding. This physiological response can even be harnessed clinically to treat depression, transforming art from mere ornamentation into a powerful instrument for cognitive calibration. Discover how these chills can reshape our relationship with culture and self.
Keep Making That Face: Your Resting Brain Already Knows How Much You Care
Keep making that face and it will stay that way. This age-old warning hints at a deeper truth: our repeated emotional states can shape who we are. But what if the reverse is true? Our latest research explores whether our brain already reveals our traits, even in moments of stillness. By analyzing resting-state brain activity, we discovered that empathy can be predicted from just six minutes of passive observation. This groundbreaking approach could transform how we measure empathy, especially in populations where traditional methods fall short. Dive into our findings and discover the potential of understanding empathy from a new perspective.
VR for Cognition and Memory
Get The Article PDF Paywalled Chapter VR for Cognition and Memory Cite This Work APA AMA MLA Reggente N. (2023). VR for Cognition and Memory. Current topics in behavioral neurosciences, 10.1007/7854_2023_425. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2023_425 Reggente N. VR for Cognition and Memory [published online ahead of print, 2023 Jul 14]. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2023;10.1007/7854_2023_425. doi:10.1007/7854_2023_425 Reggente, […]
Individual Differences in Aesthetic Chills
Get The Article Article PDF Scientific Data Article ChillsDB 2.0: Individual Differences in Aesthetic Chills Among 2,900+ Southern California Participants Cite This Work APA MLA Bibtex Schoeller, F., Moore, L., Lynch, C., & Reggente, N. (2023c). ChillsDB 2.0: Individual Differences in aesthetic chills among 2,900+ Southern California participants. Scientific Data, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02816-6 Schoeller, Felix, et al. “ChillsDB […]
Predicting Chills – Characterizing Individual Differences in Peak Emotional Response
Get The Article Article PDF PNA Nexus Article Predicting individual differences in peak emotional response Cite This Work APA MLA Bibtex 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 […]
Current State of Potential Mechanisms Supporting Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Neuromodulation
Published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in 2022, this review intended to answer how ultrasound for neuromodulation works Our review titled, Current state of potential mechanisms supporting low intensity focused ultrasound for neuromodulation, attempts to address the following questions: 1) How can we alter the amount of mechanical energy or other properties of the mechanical energy using the sonication […]
The Consciousness Compass
The Consciousness Compass Edited by GPT 4. Illustrated by MidJourney. What does this mean? See Afterword below. What the hell is ‘a common denominator of consciousness’”? you ask me. We’re in a café in the city on a rainy day. You’ve just opened my new paper on your laptop, recently published in the peer-reviewed Nature Portfolio journal Biology […]
Arousal Regulation by the External Globus Pallidus: A New Node for the Mesocircuit Hypothesis
Get The Article Article PDF Brain Sciences Article Arousal Regulation by the External Globus Pallidus: A New Node for the Mesocircuit Hypothesis Cite This Work APA MLA Bibtex Zheng, Z. S., Reggente, N., & Monti, M. M. (2023). Arousal regulation by the external globus pallidus: a new node for the mesocircuit hypothesis. Brain Sciences, 13(1), 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010146 […]
In Pursuit of a ‘Neuroprint’ for Neuroscience-Based Personalization
The Challenge of Individual Variation Just as fingerprints represent multivariate patterns with sufficient uniqueness and stability to serve as forensic evidence in criminal proceedings, our brains harbor distinctive topographies of response to the world around us. These neural landscapes, shaped by genetics, experience, and countless moments of conscious and unconscious processing, hold the key to […]
Virtual Reality vs. Reflective Chamber: New Study Shows Both Can Help Reduce Anxiety
Get The Article Article PDF PLOS Mental Health Article Contrasting cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses to breathwork vs. naturalistic stimuli in reflective chamber and VR headset environments Cite This Work APA MLA Bibtex Simonian, N., Johnson, M. A., Lynch, C., Wang, G., Kumaravel, V., Kuhn, T., Schoeller, F., & Reggente, N. (2025). Contrasting cognitive, behavioral, […]