I'm looking forward to presenting at the ASA annual meeting. I'll be presenting my paper "How Solving a Dopamine Puzzle Might Resolve the Paradox of Painful Art". I point out that pleasant sensations can still be realized in the presence of painful art due to underlying endogenous opioids.

The American Society for Aesthetics is now posting updates about society events and other opportunities on Bluesky. Keep your eyes peeled for the latest information, and please share this news with colleagues and friends! For more detailed information, visit our website at: aesthetics-online.org.

It was an honor to be a part of the 1st annual conference for The Society for Philosophy and Neuroscience. Interdisciplinary in the best sense. Looking forward to more events. @socphilneuro.bsky.social

I'm looking forward to presenting at SPAN. I'll be discussing why octopuses on ecstacy challenge claims that psychological states are autonomous from neural states. @socphilneuro.bsky.social

✨ Check out our stunning website! ✨ 🧠 Our DFG-funded project "Mechanistic and Representational Explanations in Cognitive Neuroscience (MeReX)" is excited to introduce itself. Explore what we're all about: www.merex-project.org 🌐 #philsky #philsci #CognitiveNeuroscience #Conference #Berlin2025

SPAN 2025: Call for papers 🧠 Submission deadline: February 1, 2025 Keynote and invited symposia schedule coming soon! Visit: philandneuro.com/submissions

I don't know where this came from, but it is very funny. [If you don't get the reference search for `AI six fingers'.]

Upcoming PSA office hours 12pm EST 1. Wed 22 Jan: Engaged Philosophy of Science w/Kevin Elliott & Katie Plaisance 2. Wed 12 Feb: Philosophy of Psychiatry w/ Şerife Tekin & Jonathan Y. Tsou 3. Wed 5 Mar: Epistemology of Scientific Communities / Social Epistemology @cailinmeister.bsky.social

Two of my paintings were used for the front and back covers of the album "The Last Sunset of the Year" by Marcus Fjellström. It was a pleasure to be a part of this project. #marcusfjellström #thelastsunsetoftheyear #erikskodvin #davidkajganich

In a @currentbiology.bsky.social paper earlier this year, led by @laurawesseldijk.bsky.social, we analysed Beethoven’s genome with a polygenic index related to musicality, as a way to communicate limits of genetic predictions at the individual level & the complexity of links between DNA & behaviour:

A starter pack for empirical aesthetics and neuroaesthetics! A small start, but I’m sure it will grow. I will add more folks as I find them. Ping me with your additions. #neuroaesthetics #empiricalaesthetics go.bsky.app/HKuJYiw

The sensory valuation account of aesthetic experience Perspective by Marcos Nadal (@mnadal.bsky.social) & Martin Skov (@mskov01.bsky.social) Web: go.nature.com/3ZfccAG PDF: rdcu.be/d13QD

If we don’t have a critical mass of people in academia who can communicate *something* about the substance of what we do & the value of doing it to people beyond academia, the destruction of higher education is going to go a lot quicker.

And then he ate it. After paying $6.2 million at auction recently, Justin Sun consumed the banana. Is my outrage the result of an artworld that lacks any intellectual foundation that can block practical jokes from subverting its institutions? Or is it that this art/stunt is a reflection of us?

Seen through this lens, aesthetic experiences are not essentially different from other kinds of experience, disinterested, or involve a unique sort of pleasure. They are rooted in basic reward processes shared with other animals, have motivational and biological roles, and deep evolutionary origins

We abandon the assumption-burdened concept of aesthetic experience in favor of sensory valuation, reframing aesthetic experience as an outcome of domain-general processes in the reward system. These processes integrate sensory information, expectations, experience, context, and physiological states

Marcos Nadal and I are pleased to announce that our new paper, "The sensory valuation account of aesthetic experience", is now out in Nature Reviews Psychology. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

LinkedIn suggested I send a BD message to someone. It offered to have AI help me compose it. Here is what it came up with, cut and pasted so no mistakes: "Happy birthday!"--I feel blessed, I worked 50 years on AI, & now I am around to witness AI solving all our pressing problems. Magic!

Two of my paintings were used for the cover and the back of the album, The Last Sunset of the Year, by experimental composer Marcus Fjellström. Sadly, this album is a posthumous release. However, it was a pleasure to make a small contribution to this project. www.mi-so-store.com/products/mar...

Last week, Maurizo Cattelan's piece Comedian sold at Sotheby's for $6.2 million. I hope that research in neuroaesthetics can help to formulate theories of art that reestablish the value of aesthetic experiences. @anjanchatterjee.bsky.social @pcfn.bsky.social @mskov01.bsky.social

Consciousness requires the right biological processes and current AI can't be conscious, though a different kind of AI, closer to biology, might. Lots of good empirical info and food for thought. 3/3

I'm as open to contemporary art as anyone, but www.bbc.com/news/article...

At 9 am CST I will be giving an online presentation titled "Releasing their Ink: Why Octopuses on Ecstasy Challenges the Autonomy of Psychology". Check it out @ispsm_mind

I just participated in an excellent conference hosted by the Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science. I presented a poster that demonstrated how complex mechanisms can not be simply reduced to their lower-level realizers, nor are their higher-levels autonomous. @umnmcps

Last week, I had the honor of participating in the Deep South Philosophy & Neuroscience conference. I presented a project on the relevance of neuroaesthetics to philosphers. It was a real pleasure to get to swap ideas with so many brilliant philosophers and neuroscientists.

Looking forward to teaching this course that I proudly created.  It represents my personal journey of merging art and philosophy.

Great experience presenting a project at POBAM (Philosophy of Biology at the Mountains) in Salt Lake City.

Today, at the Indiana Philosophy Association, I presented my case for why octopuses on ecstacy create a dilemma for the feasibility of artificial psychological states.

Prepping for another conference presentation. This one should get some interesting reactions

I'm excited to be part of the Deep South Philosophy and Neuroscience Workgroup. I gave a talk on "What Neuroaesthetics Brings to the Hard Problem of Consciousness".

I'm getting ready for my presentation this weekend at the Deep South Philosophy and Neuroscience Workgroup.

We held the 45th annual UIUC Graduate Student Conference this weekend. Special thanks to our keynote speaker, Marco J. Nathan for an excellent talk.