1
|
Schoeller F, Jain A, Pizzagalli DA, Reggente N. The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2024; 24:617-630. [PMID: 38383913 PMCID: PMC11233292 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-024-01168-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
The phenomenon of aesthetic chills-shivers and goosebumps associated with either rewarding or threatening stimuli-offers a unique window into the brain basis of conscious reward because of their universal nature and simultaneous subjective and physical counterparts. Elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying aesthetic chills can reveal fundamental insights about emotion, consciousness, and the embodied mind. What is the precise timing and mechanism of bodily feedback in emotional experience? How are conscious feelings and motivations generated from interoceptive predictions? What is the role of uncertainty and precision signaling in shaping emotions? How does the brain distinguish and balance processing of rewards versus threats? We review neuroimaging evidence and highlight key questions for understanding how bodily sensations shape conscious feelings. This research stands to advance models of brain-body interactions shaping affect and may lead to novel nonpharmacological interventions for disorders of motivation and pleasure.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Felix Schoeller
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Abhinandan Jain
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Nicco Reggente
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Schoeller F, Christov-Moore L, Lynch C, Diot T, Reggente N. Predicting individual differences in peak emotional response. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgae066. [PMID: 38444601 PMCID: PMC10914375 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
Why does the same experience elicit strong emotional responses in some individuals while leaving others largely indifferent? Is the variance influenced by who people are (personality traits), how they feel (emotional state), where they come from (demographics), or a unique combination of these? In this 2,900+ participants study, we disentangle the factors that underlie individual variations in the universal experience of aesthetic chills, the feeling of cold and shivers down the spine during peak experiences. Here, we unravel the interplay of psychological and sociocultural dynamics influencing self-reported chills reactions. A novel technique harnessing mass data mining of social media platforms curates the first large database of ecologically sourced chills-evoking stimuli. A combination of machine learning techniques (LASSO and SVM) and multilevel modeling analysis elucidates the interacting roles of demographics, traits, and states factors in the experience of aesthetic chills. These findings highlight a tractable set of features predicting the occurrence and intensity of chills-age, sex, pre-exposure arousal, predisposition to Kama Muta (KAMF), and absorption (modified tellegen absorption scale [MODTAS]), with 73.5% accuracy in predicting the occurrence of chills and accounting for 48% of the variance in chills intensity. While traditional methods typically suffer from a lack of control over the stimuli and their effects, this approach allows for the assignment of stimuli tailored to individual biopsychosocial profiles, thereby, increasing experimental control and decreasing unexplained variability. Further, they elucidate how hidden sociocultural factors, psychological traits, and contextual states shape seemingly "subjective" phenomena.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Felix Schoeller
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA 90403, USA
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | | | - Caitlin Lynch
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA 90403, USA
| | - Thomas Diot
- Department of Psychiatry, GHU Paris Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Paris 75010, France
| | - Nicco Reggente
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA 90403, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Schoeller F, Horowitz AH, Jain A, Maes P, Reggente N, Christov-Moore L, Pezzulo G, Barca L, Allen M, Salomon R, Miller M, Di Lernia D, Riva G, Tsakiris M, Chalah MA, Klein A, Zhang B, Garcia T, Pollack U, Trousselard M, Verdonk C, Dumas G, Adrien V, Friston K. Interoceptive technologies for psychiatric interventions: From diagnosis to clinical applications. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 156:105478. [PMID: 38007168 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023]
Abstract
Interoception-the perception of internal bodily signals-has emerged as an area of interest due to its implications in emotion and the prevalence of dysfunctional interoceptive processes across psychopathological conditions. Despite the importance of interoception in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, its experimental manipulation remains technically challenging. This is due to the invasive nature of existing methods, the limitation of self-report and unimodal measures of interoception, and the absence of standardized approaches across disparate fields. This article integrates diverse research efforts from psychology, physiology, psychiatry, and engineering to address this oversight. Following a general introduction to the neurophysiology of interoception as hierarchical predictive processing, we review the existing paradigms for manipulating interoception (e.g., interoceptive modulation), their underlying mechanisms (e.g., interoceptive conditioning), and clinical applications (e.g., interoceptive exposure). We suggest a classification for interoceptive technologies and discuss their potential for diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Despite promising results, considerable work is still needed to develop standardized, validated measures of interoceptive function across domains and before these technologies can translate safely and effectively to clinical settings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Felix Schoeller
- Fluid Interfaces Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA; Department Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel.
| | - Adam Haar Horowitz
- Fluid Interfaces Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, USA
| | - Abhinandan Jain
- Fluid Interfaces Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
| | - Pattie Maes
- Fluid Interfaces Group, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
| | - Nicco Reggente
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA
| | | | - Giovanni Pezzulo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Laura Barca
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
| | - Micah Allen
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Denmark; Cambridge Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Roy Salomon
- Department Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel
| | - Mark Miller
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Japan
| | - Daniele Di Lernia
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy; Applied Technology for Neuro- Psychology Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Riva
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy; Applied Technology for Neuro- Psychology Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy
| | - Manos Tsakiris
- The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK; Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK; Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - Moussa A Chalah
- EA 4391, Excitabilité Nerveuse et Thérapeutique, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France; Service de Physiologie - Explorations Fonctionnelles, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil, France
| | - Arno Klein
- Child Mind Institute, New York City, USA
| | - Ben Zhang
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA
| | - Teresa Garcia
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA
| | - Ursula Pollack
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, USA
| | - Marion Trousselard
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, Place Général Valérie André, 91220 Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
| | - Charles Verdonk
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, Place Général Valérie André, 91220 Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
| | | | - Vladimir Adrien
- Infrastructure for Clinical Research in Neurosciences (iCRIN) Psychiatry, Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France; Department of Psychiatry, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, AP-HP, Sorbonne Université, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Karl Friston
- Queen Sq, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Sarasso P, Francesetti G, Schoeller F. Editorial: Possible applications of neuroaesthetics to normal and pathological behaviour. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1225308. [PMID: 37521683 PMCID: PMC10381953 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1225308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/15/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Pietro Sarasso
- Brain Plasticity and Behaviour Changes Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Gianni Francesetti
- International Institute for Gestalt Therapy and Psychopathology, Turin, Italy
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Felix Schoeller
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, United States
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Jain A, Schoeller F, Horowitz A, Hu X, Yan G, Salomon R, Maes P. Aesthetic chills cause an emotional drift in valence and arousal. Front Neurosci 2023; 16:1013117. [PMID: 36960328 PMCID: PMC10029140 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1013117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 03/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Aesthetic chills are an embodied peak emotional experience induced by stimuli such as music, films, and speeches and characterized by dopaminergic release. The emotional consequences of chills in terms of valence and arousal are still debated and the existing empirical data is conflicting. In this study, we tested the effects of ChillsDB, an open-source repository of chills-inducing stimuli, on the emotional ratings of 600+ participants. We found that participants experiencing chills reported significantly more positive valence and greater arousal during the experience, compared to participants who did not experience chills. This suggests that the embodied experience of chills may influence one's perception and affective evaluation of the context, in favor of theoretical models emphasizing the role of interoceptive signals such as chills in the process of perception and decision-making. We also found an interesting pattern in the valence ratings of participants, which tended to harmonize toward a similar mean after the experiment, though initially disparately distributed. We discuss the significance of these results for the diagnosis and treatment of dopaminergic disorders such as Parkinson's, schizophrenia, and depression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Felix Schoeller
- MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Centre, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
- Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, Santa Monica, CA, United States
| | | | | | - Grace Yan
- MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Roy Salomon
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Centre, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Repetto C, Riva G. The neuroscience of body memory: Recent findings and conceptual advances. EXCLI JOURNAL 2023; 22:191-206. [PMID: 36998712 PMCID: PMC10043453 DOI: 10.17179/excli2023-5877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 04/01/2023]
Abstract
The body is a very special object, as it corresponds to the physical component of the self and it is the medium through which we interact with the world. Our body awareness includes the mental representation of the body that happens to be our own, and traditionally has been defined in terms of body schema and body image. Starting from the distinction between these two types of representations, the present paper tries to reconcile the literature around body representations under the common framework of body memory. The body memory develops ontogenetically from birth and across all the life span and is directly linked to the development of the self. Therefore, our sense of self and identity is fundamentally based on multisensory knowledge accumulated in body memory, so that the sensations collected by our body, stored as implicit memory, can unfold in the future, under suitable circumstances. Indeed, these sets of bodily information had been proposed as possible key factors underpinning several mental health illnesses. Following this perspective, the Embodied Medicine approach put forward the use of advanced technologies to alter the dysfunctional body memory to enhance people's well-being. In the last sections, recent experimental pieces of evidence will be illustrated that targeted specifically bodily information for increasing health and wellbeing, by means of two strategies: interoceptive feedback and bodily illusions. See also Figure 1(Fig. 1).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Repetto
- Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
- *To whom correspondence should be addressed: Claudia Repetto, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20121 Milan, Italy; Tel: + 39 02 7234 2585, E-mail:
| | - Giuseppe Riva
- Humane Technology Lab, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
- Applied Technology for Neuropsychology Lab, Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Bignardi G, Chamberlain R, Kevenaar ST, Tamimy Z, Boomsma DI. On the etiology of aesthetic chills: a behavioral genetic study. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3247. [PMID: 35228562 PMCID: PMC8885664 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07161-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Aesthetic chills, broadly defined as a somatic marker of peak emotional-hedonic responses, are experienced by individuals across a variety of human cultures. Yet individuals vary widely in the propensity of feeling them. These individual differences have been studied in relation to demographics, personality, and neurobiological and physiological factors, but no study to date has explored the genetic etiological sources of variation. To partition genetic and environmental sources of variation in the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills, we fitted a biometrical genetic model to data from 14,127 twins (from 8995 pairs), collected by the Netherlands Twin Register. Both genetic and unique environmental factors accounted for variance in aesthetic chills, with heritability estimated at 0.36 ([0.33, 0.39] 95% CI). We found females more prone than males to report feeling aesthetic chills. However, a test for genotype x sex interaction did not show evidence that heritability differs between sexes. We thus show that the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills is not shaped by nurture alone, but it also reflects underlying genetic propensities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giacomo Bignardi
- Department of Language & Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London, London, UK.
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Stephanstrasse 1a, Leipzig, Germany.
| | | | - Sofieke T Kevenaar
- Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Zenab Tamimy
- Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Dorret I Boomsma
- Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Abstract
We offer an account of mental health and well-being using the predictive processing framework (PPF). According to this framework, the difference between mental health and psychopathology can be located in the goodness of the predictive model as a regulator of action. What is crucial for avoiding the rigid patterns of thinking, feeling and acting associated with psychopathology is the regulation of action based on the valence of affective states. In PPF, valence is modelled as error dynamics—the change in prediction errors over time . Our aim in this paper is to show how error dynamics can account for both momentary happiness and longer term well-being. What will emerge is a new neurocomputational framework for making sense of human flourishing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark Miller
- Center for Consciousness and Contemplative StudiesMonash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Erik Rietveld
- ILLC/Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdamhe Netherlands Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
| | - Julian Kiverstein
- ILLC/Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdamhe Netherlands Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|