Neurophysiological Signatures and Prosocial Effects of Augmented Aesthetic Chills

Christov-Moore, L.1, Zhang, B.1, Nath, M.1, Simonian, N.1, Schoeller, N.1, Reggente, N.1,

1Institute For Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA

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This investigation represents the first neurophysiological examination of live-reported aesthetic chills within a substantial cohort (n=120), demonstrating that chill epochs exhibit significantly elevated neural signal complexity across multiple computational metrics (Lempel-Ziv, Permutation Entropy, Higuchi Fractal Dimension). This complexity increase predicted subsequent enhanced prosociality and altered moral reasoning, establishing neural signal complexity as a critical mediating mechanism underlying social-moral elevating aesthetic experiences. The findings provide empirical validation for contemporary theoretical frameworks positioning complexity changes as fundamental to consciousness transformation and suggest that aesthetic chills may function as a more democratized alternative to pharmacological promoters of psychedelic states with shared neurophysiological signatures and comparable psychological outcomes.

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