The neurobiology of aesthetic chills: How bodily sensations shape emotional experiences

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.

Keywords: Arousal; Chills; Dopamine; Emotional; Film; Learning; Music; Precision; Reward; Valence.

Fig. 1

Neural mechanisms of chills and reward. Green areas indicate increased activation during the chills response. Red areas are deactivated. Key regions involved include the ventral tegmental area (VTA) projecting to the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) and the hippocampus. The amygdala, orbital, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex show deactivation during chills (Blood & Zatorre, 2001). The VTA, nucleus accumbens, and striatum are part of the brain's reward system, associated with pleasure, reward, and compulsive behavior. The right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a role in sensory processing, reward, and expected outcomes. Note that electroencephalographic recording of chills showed theta activity with activation in the orbitofrontal cortex, in correlation with emotional ratings (Chabin et al., 2020)

Fig. 2

Three phases of pleasure and chills as peak consummatory pleasure. The "Wanting" phase represents the initial anticipation and desire for rewards. The "Liking" phase corresponds to the peak of consummatory pleasure, characterized by the experience of aesthetic chills (AC). Following the chills, the “Learning” phase begins, involving the encoding of crucial information about the film. This phase is associated with the consolidation of the CS meaning. In other words, AC marks the onset of the satiation process, where the viewer's curiosity is temporarily satisfied

Fig. 3

Learning (blue) and its rate of change (red), as the fit between ascending signals and available models. Learning is represented by the equation: L = ∏n [∑m l(X(n) | M(m))], where l denotes the conditional similarity of data given conditional models (Schoeller et al., 2018a, b). This sinusoidal representation is a gross oversimplification for the sake of readability. The blue area at the peak of the curve defines conscious aesthetic emotions (when the rate of change tends toward zero), and the squared area describes a descending learning slope corresponding to a negative derivative. The graph highlights the interplay between learning and emotions, emphasizing how insights (e.g., positive chills) and traumas (e.g., negative chills) shape an individual’s overall mood and well-being. Adapted from Schoeller & Perlovsky,

Fig. 4

A and B. Individuals who experience aesthetic chills display higher psychological insight (PIS) and emotional breakthrough (EBI) compared with control (Schoeller et al., 2023c; 2023d). C and D. Chills intensity is positively correlated with emotional breakthrough (EBI) and emotional awareness (MAIA). E. AC was associated with a significant change in reward bias (PRT) pre- and post-exposure to stimuli in subjects compared to control (Jain et al., 2023b). F. Experience of aesthetic chills was reliably associated with patterns of ego dissolution, connectedness, and moral elevation (Christov-Moore et al., 2023)

Fig. 5

Circumplex model depicts participants’ self-reported arousal and valence before (empty dots) and after chills exposure (full dots). Participants with high anhedonia (HA) are shown in red, low anhedonia (LA) in orange, and healthy controls in blue. Solid lines indicate participants who experienced chills, while dotted lines show those who did not. Empty dots represent pre-exposure ratings, while filled dots show post-exposure ratings. HA participants who experienced chills shifted toward LA participants without chills and control pre-exposure levels. This suggests chills exposure increased arousal and valence in high anhedonia to approach levels seen in low anhedonia and controls