2024
06/10/2024 Coverage of our project on mapping corporal emotions in the ancient Akkadian language now out in Psyche magazine.
19/9/2024 Emotion Lab is hiring! We are looking for a senior scientist and a post-doc to join our team working on ERC-funded total-body PET imaging project in affective science. More information here – please spread the word!
6/8/2024 Criminal psychopathy is linked with altered dopamine tone in the brain – new paper out in NeuroImage: Lukkarinen, L., Tuisku, J., Sun, L., Helin, S., Karlsson, H.K., Venetjoki, N., Salomaa, M., Rautio, P., Hirvonen, J. Lauerma, H., Tiihonen, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2024). Aberrant type 2 dopamine receptor availability in criminal psychopathy. NeuroImage.
13/5/24 Our free online & on-site PET Neuroimaging course will be held in Turku on September 2nd-6th 2024. Check out the schedule & register here.
27/6/ Emotion Lab wishes everyone a great summer! We’re slowly settling to vacation speed – full steam ahead again in August!
22/5/24 Our cordial thanks to Gyllenberg’s Stiftelse for funding our project Mapping psychosomatic basis of emotions using total-body positron emission tomography – more world-class PET science coming up soon so stay tuned!
12/5/24 Dopamine signalling follows seasonal patterns as shown in our large-scale “mega-analysis” now out in EJNMMI: Sun, L., Malen, T., Tuisku, J., Kaasinen, V., Hietala, J.A.m Rinne, J., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (2024). Seasonal variation in D2/3 dopamine receptor availability in the human brain. EJNME.
12/4/24 Extensive coverage of Emotion lab and Total-body PET in today’s issue of Turun Sanomat. Nice pieces on the ERC Advanced grant also out in YLE and Aamuset.
11/4/24 Another milestone for Emotion Lab: European Research Council has awarded us a 2.5M€ ERC Advanced Grant for studying whole-body emotion circuits with total-body positron emission tomography. For those about to PET – we salute you!
8/4/24 Movement disorders have major influence on emotions in the : our new study shows how bodily maps of emotions are altered in Parkinson’s disease: Niemi, K.J., Huovinen, A., Jaakkola, E., Glerean, E., Nummenmaa, L., & Joutsa, J. (2024). Bodily maps of symptoms and emotions in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders.
13/3/24 Kerttu presenting her work on fear and anxiety in YLE Akateeminen Vartti (in Finnish).
16/2/24 Bodily maps of musical emotions covered in Turun Sanomat (in Finnish)
8/2/24 Turku PET Centre large-scale dopamine receptor maps in neurospcychiatric conditions now available: Malén, T., Santavirta, S., De Maeyer, S., Tuisku, J., Kaasinen, V., Kankare, T., Isojärvi, J., Rinne, J., Hietala, J., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (2024). Alterations in type 2 dopamine receptors across neuropsychiatric conditions: A large-scale PET cohort. NeuroImage: Clinical.
25/1/24 Let’s groove tonight! Our large-scale cross-cultural study on musical feelings in the body is now out in PNAS! Putkinen, V., Zhou, X., Gan, X., Yang, L., Becker, B., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (2024). Bodily maps of musical sensations across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Data and code may be downloaded from OSF.
1/2/24 Be sure to check out this piece in Forbes magazine about the Emotion Lab study on musical emotions in the body.
16/1/24 We are hiring! Open positions available in our project on emotions in public spaces, see this link for more details (in Finnish).
2023
22/12/23 Emotion Lab wishes everyone merry Christmas and happy holidays. More top-notch science to follow in 2024!
18/11/23 Our study on bodily maps of emotions in chronic pain now shown on the cover of the latest issue of PAIN.
6/11/23 Total-body PET starts gaining friction, and our review on perfusion imaging is now out in JNM: Knuuti, J., Tuisku, J., Kärpijoki, H., Iida, H., Maaniitty, T., Latva-Rasku, A., Oikonen, V., Nesterov, S., Teuho, J., Jaakkola, M., Klen, R., Louhi, H., Saunavaara, V., Nuutila, P., Saraste, A., Rinne, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2023). Quantitative perfusion imaging with total body positron emission tomography. Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
26/10/23 Pardon my Finnish, mutta vuoden vituttavin tutkimus on lopultakin julkaistu:Nummenmaa, L. & Hietanen, J.K. (2023). Vitutus. Tehohoitolehti, 2/2023.
08/09/23 Severi discussing the capacity of human brain and social cognition in the Tiedeykkönen podcast (in Finnish)
07/09/23 Emotions and pain meet in the body: Our new body mapping study now out in PAIN: Ojala, J., Suvilehto, J.T., Nummenmaa, L., & Kalso, E. (2023). Bodily maps of emotions and nociceptive, tactile and hedonic sensitivity in healthy controls and patients experiencing chronic pain. Pain.
16/08/23 Emotion Lab & PET Centre open neuroimaging course is coming in September! Make sure to register in time – see more information on the course webpages.
23/06/23 Emotion Lab wishes everyone a lovely midsummer
11/05/23 Climax time! The infamous WANK-O-PET is study is finally out in the mighty Journal of Nuclear Medicine: Jern, P., Chen, J., Tuisku, J., Saanijoki, T., Hirvonen, J., Lukkarinen, L., Manninen, S., Helin, S., Putkinen, V., & Nummenmaa, L. (2023). Endogenous opioid release following orgasm in man: A combined PET-fMRI study. Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
07/06/23 Emotion Lab proudly presents the 2023 edition of Fear and Loathing in Seili symposium. Such a great lineup of speakers and guests!
19/05/23 Lauri’s book on introductory statistics (in Finnish) has now been released as a digital edition. If you fancy doing stats with SPSS, do check it out: Nummenmaa, L (2023). Käyttäytymistieteiden tilastolliset menetelmät – digiversio. Helsinki: Tammi.
17/04/23 We are happy to announce that we will organise the 4th edition of the Turku PET Centre Neuroimaging course on September 11th-15th 2023. Please see the course website for details, see you in Turku in the Autumn!
16/04/23 Lauri’s book of statistical exercises (in Finnish) is now released as a free online edition – go ahead and download a copy! Nummenmaa, L. (2006; 2009, 2023). Käyttäytymistieteiden tilastolliset menetelmät: Harjoituskirja [Excercises on multivariate statistics for behavioural sciences].Vammala: Tammi.
10/4/23 How does your brain encode signals of distress and joy? We worked this out using pattern recognition and neuroimaging: Nummenmaa, L., Malen, T., Nazari-Farsani, S., Seppälä. K., Sun, L., Karlsson, H.K., Hudson, M., Hirvonen, J., Sams, M., Scott, S.K., Putkinen, V. (2023) Decoding brain basis of laughter and crying in natural scenes. NeuroImage.
13/3/2023 Our tour-de-force paper on social perception circuits is finally out! Santavirta, S., Karjalainen, T., Nazari-Farsani, S., Hudson, M., Putkinen, V., Seppälä, K., Sun, L., Glerean, E., Hirvonen, J., Karlsson, H.K., & Nummenmaa, L. (2023). Functional organization of social perception in the human brain. NeuroImage.
23/3/2023 Jinglu Chen from Emotion lab wins the second prize in the 3MT competition at the University of Turku – great job! You can watch Jinglu’s presentation about the compassionate brain here.
15/3/2023 Lili Järvinen from Emotion Lab featured in Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish) speaking openly and personally about eating disorders, training and overcontrol. What a great and brave interview, way to go Lili!
17/2/ 2023 How does art make us feel? Now you can find it out, as our new paper on the bodily emotions and art is finally published! Nummenmaa, L. & Hari, R. (2023). Bodily feelings and aesthetic experience of art. Cognition & Emotion.
7/3/2023 Registration for the free Turku PET Centre PET Basics course is now open! See more information here.
28/2/2023 Our new collaborative study with Juho Joutsa’s group shows how cortical lesion localisation predicts the generalisation of epileptic seizures: Nordberg, J., Schaper, F.L., Bucci, M., Nummenmaa, L., & Joutsa, J. (2023). Brain lesion localizations associated with secondary seizure generalization. Human Brain Mapping.
13/2/23 Male and female brains differ significantly in their sexual arousal responses. New tour-de-force paper now out from Emotion Lab! Putkinen, V. , Nazari-Farsani, S., Karjalainen, T., Santavirta, S., Hudson, M., Seppälä, K., Sun, L., Karlsson, H.K., Hirvonen, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2023). Pattern recognition reveals sex-dependent neural substrates of sexual perception. Human Brain Mapping.
16/1/23 The Washington Post covers our work on the brain basis of contagious laughter – read the full piece for free here!
13/1/23 First goal scored for 2023! Our collaboration with Vanderbilt University shows that embodied awareness predicts emotion recognition accuracy: Blain, S.D., Snodgress, M.A., Nummenmaa, L., Peterman, J.S., Glerean, E., & Park, S. (in press). Social bodies: Preliminary evidence that awareness of embodied emotions is associated with recognition of emotions in the bodily cues of others. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
2022
30/11/22 An astonishing new open-access textbook on cognitive neuroscience out now! Check out Social and Affective Neuroscience of Everyday Human Interaction with a smashing piece on PET imaging from Emotion Lab!
25/11/22 We are delighted to announce that our own superstar Tatu Kantonen has been awarded the Best Dissertation Award for year 2022 by the The Finnish Association for the Study of Obesity! Be sure to check out the outstanding thesis here.
17/11/22 The Finnish-Korean winning streak continues! This time it’s all about cannabinoids, mRNA and PET. Some meta-analysis also included! Pak, K., Kantonen, T., Pekkarinen, L., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (2022). Association of CNR1 gene and Cannabinoid 1 receptor protein in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience Research.
15/11/22 Check out the new episode of Futucast with Lauri discussing the neurobiological roots of human evil and violence (in Finnish)! Also available on Spotify for those who prefer audio only.
1/11/22 A smashing start for November – our Finnish-Korean collaboration on the determinants of brain glucose metabolism in a longitudinal cohort is now out in mighty Diabetes Care! Pak, K., Malen, T., Santavirta, S., Shin, S., Nam, H.-Y., De Mayer, S., & Nummenmaa, L. (2022). Brain glucose metabolism and ageing: A 5-year longitudinal study in a large PET cohort. Diabetes Care.
31/10/22 Better stay fit! Our new study shows how metabolic health deteriorates before obesity: Pekkarinen, L., Kantonen, T., Rebelos, E., Latva-Rasku, A., Dadson, P., Karjalainen, T., Bucci, M., Kalliokoski, K., Laitinen, K., Houttu, N., Kirjavainben, A.K., Rönnemaa, T., Nummenmaa, L., & Nuutila, P. (in press). Obesity risk is associated with brain glucose uptake and insulin resistance. European Journal of Endocrinology.
27/9/22 New book out from the Emotion Lab today! PAHUUS (The Psychology of Evil) covers the dark side of human nature from psychological, biological and social perspectives. Available from all major bookstores and e-book services!
25/09/22 Our short and sweet mini-commentary on emotions and body is now out in Scandinavian Journal of Pain!
21/09/22 Cracking the laugh code: laughter through the lens of biology, psychology and neuroscience – a fantastic theme issue on mirthful science now out in Phil Trans B, with superb contributions from Emotion Lab too!
16/09/22 Rats, BATs and seasonal variation – new paper out! Sun, L., Aarnio, R., Atenico Herre, E., Kärnä, S., Palani, S., Virtanen, H., Liljebäck, H., Virta, J., Honkanemi, A., Oikonen, V., Han, C., Laurila, S., Bucci, M., Helin, S., Yatkin, E., Nummenmaa, L., Nuutila, P., Tang, J., & Roivainen, A. (2022). Photoperiod modulates mu-opioid receptor availability in the brown adipose tissue. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
21/09/22 Thanks to everyone who took part in the Turku PET Centre Neuroimaging Course! You can still access all the lectures and the materials on webpage!
12/09/22 Turku PET Centre neuroimaging course will begin on September 19th – you can still join, lectures will be live online and it’s free for all! See the course webpage for registration instructions.
26/5/2022 Turku PET Symposium will begin next week! Top-level PET science, sauna party, fine dining and grooving party with PETs and Boys coming up!
31/8/2022 Shared and distinct structural cerebral alterations in autism and psychopathy – new paper now out! Noppari, T., Sun, L., Lukkarinen, L., Putkinen, V., Tani, P., Lindberg, N., Saure, E., Lauerma, H., Tiihonen, J., Venetjoki, N., Salomaa, M., Rautio, P., Hirvonen, J., Salmi, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2022). Brain structural alterations in autism and criminal psychopathy. NeuroImage Clinical.
20/5/2022 Doctor Kantonen – we salute you! An outstanding thesis and what fabulous defense! Be sure to check out this major treatise of neuromolecular basis of obesity here.
4/5/2022 Emotion Lab congratulates our own Yngwie Malmsteen Vesa Putkinen for landing the ultra-competitive Academy of Finland fellowship for working on molecular basis of musical emotions. This one goes Far beyond the Sun!
11/4/2022 Our dear Snake Charmer Kerttu discussing brain-PET studies on real fear with Iltalehti.
8/4/2022 Se on niin kaunista katseltavaa kun kunnolla vituttaa! Our work on “vitutus”, the uniquely Finnish emotion is covered in Helsingin Sanomat.
1/4/2022 Coverage of our work on the neurobiology of evil in Helsingin Sanomat [in Finnish].
30/3/2022 Vailla omatuntoa – suomenkielinen juttu psykopaateista nyt luettavissa uusimmassa Tiede-lehdessä. [New Finnish piece on psychopaths now out in Tiede magazine]
25/3/22 Turku PET Centre atlas of human dopamine D2 receptors now out in Neuroimage! Malen, T., Karjalainen, T., Isojärvi, J., Vehtari, A., Brukner, P., Putkinen, V., Kaasinen, V., Hietala, J., Nuutila, P., Rinne, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2022). Atlas of type 2 dopamine receptors in the human brain: Age and sex dependent variability in a large PET cohort. NeuroImage.
5/2/22 Coverage of our work on the bodily basis of emotion in Discover magazine.
28/2/22 [in Finnish] Suomenkielinen Pahan Psykologia -kurssimme on avattu julkiseksi verkkoluentosarjaksi. Livestriimi tiistaisin 1.3.2022 – 3.5.2022 kello 15:15-16:45, tallenteet katsottavissa myös jälkeenpäin. Luennot seurattavissa tästä linkistä.
10/2/22 Second paper accepted today! Saanijoki, T., Kantonen, T., Pekkarinen, L., Kalliokoski, K., Hirvonen, J., Tuominen, L., Tuulari, J.J., Arponen, E., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Aerobic fitness is associated with cerebral mu-opioid receptor availability and activation in healthy humans. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
10/2/22 Another hilarious finding – opioid receptors modulate brain responses to laughter: Sun, L., Lukkarinen, L., Karlsson, H., Hirvonen, J., Tiihonen, J., Lauerma, H., Scott, S., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Mu-opioid receptor system modulates responses to vocal bonding and distress signals in humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
16/1/22 Major piece about statistics and science with solid coverage of Emotion Lab now out in Turun Sanomat!
3/2/22 Differences and similarities in emotional perception in psychopathy and autism: Large clinical imaging study now out in Cerebral Cortex! Sun, L., Lukkarinen, L., Noppari, T., Nazari-Farsani, S., Putkinen, V., Seppälä, K., Hudson, M., Tani, P., Lindberg, N., Karlsson, H., Hirvonen, J., Salomaa, M., Venetjoki, N., Lauerma, H., Tiihonen, H., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Aberrant motor contagion of emotions in psychopathy and high-functioning autism. Cerebral Cortex.
2021
9/12/21 Probably our most long-standing paper (started in 2015) is FINALLY accepted for publication in NeuroImage! Saarimäki, H.P., Glerean, E., Smirnov, D., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Classification of emotions based on functional connectivity patterns of the human brain. NeuroImage.
15/11/21 Paper number 22 for this year out from Emotion Lab! Laurila, S., Rebelos, E., Lahesmaa, M., Sun, L., Schnabl, K., Peltomaa, T-M., Klen, R., U-Din, M., Honka, M-J., Eskola, O., Kirjavainen, A.K., Nummenmaa, L., Klingenspor, M., Virtanen, K.A., & Nuutila, P. (in press). Novel effects of the gastrointestinal hormone secretin on cardiac metabolism and renal function. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism.
11/11/21 Turku PET Symposium 2022 final program is now online! We cordially welcome you to celebrate the joys of PET imaging in May 2022!
5/10/21 Otetaan taksi vaikka Hervantaan! Emotion lab shows how opioid system underlies individual differences in sex drive: Nummenmaa, L., Jern, P., Malen, T., Kantonen, T., Pekkarinen, L., Lukkarinen, L., Sun, L., Nuutila, P., & Putkinen, V. (in press). µ-opioid receptor availability is associated with sex drive in human males. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience.
4/10/21 Massive triple-tracer study on brain basis of obesity now out! Kudos to Tatu for pulling it all together! Kantonen, T., Pekkarinen, L., Karjalainen, T., Bucci, M., Kalliokoski, K., Haaparanta-Solin, M., Aarnio, R., Dickens, A.M., von Eyken, A., Laitinen, K., Houttu, N., Kirjavainen, A.K., Helin, S., Hirvonen, J., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Obesity risk is associated with altered cerebral glucose metabolism and decreased μ-opioid and CB1-receptor availability. International Journal of Obesity
15/9/21 Tilastotieteen käsikirja (Handbook of Statistics) is now out! This comprehensive volume covers the essential techniques in applied statistics and suits students and senior scientists alike! You can download the table of contents here.
16/8/21 Turku PET Centre brain imaging course will begin on August 18th. This free-for all course will be arranged fully online, see course webpage for details on how to access the lectures.
13/8/21 We would like to cordially welcome Anita Song, who has joined the lab as an intern for the fall term.
2/8/21 Emotion lab keeps on growing! Assistant professor Kyoungjune “Arto” Pak has joined our group as a visiting fellow and will work at the PET Centre for two years.
7/6/21 Our Brain-PET imaging course “Principles And Applications of Neuroimaging Data Analysis” will be held in August 18.-20. 2021. Registration is now open and program is online, see the course webpage for details.
1/4/21. Such a joy to combine work, hobby & working with great friends! Out review (with multiple meta-analyses) on the social pleasures of music is now published: Nummenmaa, L., Putkinen, V., & Sams, M. (in press). Social pleasures of music. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
4/12/21 Quick antidepressant action of escitalopram demonstrated by naturalistic pharmacological fMRI: Komulainen, E., Glerean, E., Heikkilä, R., Nummenmaa, L., Raij, T., Isometsä, E., & Ekelund, J. (in press). Escitalopram enhances synchrony of brain responses during emotional narratives in patients with major depressive disorder. NeuroImage,118110.
26/3/21 Brain predicts how body will lose weight! Our latest on obesity surgery & mu-receptors now out: Karlsson, H.K., Tuominen, L., Helin, S., Salminen, P., Nuutila, P. & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Preoperative µ-opioid receptor availability predicts weight loss following bariatric surgery. JCI Insight.
19/3/21 Wanna know how rewards and emotions work out in the brain? Read our tnew argeted mini-review freshly out the press! Sander, D., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Reward and emotion: An affective neuroscience approach. Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences.
7/2/21 Emotion lab looks inside the criminal’s mind: Nummenmaa, L., Lukkarinen, L., Sun, L., Putkinen, V., Seppälä, K., Karjalainen, T., Karlsson, H.K., Hudson, M., Venetjoki, N., Salomaa, M., Rautio, P., Hirvonen, J., Lauerma, H., & Tiihonen, J. (in press). Brain basis of psychopathy in criminal offenders and general population. Cerebral Cortex.
17/3/21 Daddy-O makes a smashing comeback to the obesity research with a new follow-up study on bariatric surgery and opioids: Karlsson, H.K., Tuominen, L., Helin, S., Salminen, P., Nuutila, P. & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Mesolimbic opioid-dopamine interaction is disrupted in obesity but recovered by weight loss following bariatric surgery. Translational Psychiatry.
12/3/21 We find no link between obesity risk SNP and brain glucose uptake: Rebelos, E., Honka, M.J., Ekblad, L., Bucci, M., Hannukainen, J.C., Silva, L.F., Virtanen, K., Nummenmaa, L., & Nuutila, P. (in press). The obesity risk SNP (rs17782313) near the MC4R gene is not associated with brain glucose uptake during insulin clamp in humans. Journal of Clinical Medicine: Clinical Neurology.
6/2/21 Another long-standing project finally wrapped up! Manninen, S., Karjalainen, T., Tuominen, L.J., Hietala, J., Kaasinen, V., Joutsa, J., Rinne, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Cerebral gray matter density is associated with neuroreceptor and neurotransporter availability: A combined PET and MRI study. NeuroImage.
27/2/21 Wanna know how emotions are affect our bodies? Read our punchy new mini-review: Nummenmaa, L. & Van Dillen, L. (in press). Carnal pleasures. Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences.
23/2/21 Helsingin Sanomat covers our work on seasonal changes in opioid receptor system.
17/2/21 More work on interpersonal aggression – depression biases attention when viewing aggressive scenes. Rantanen M., Hautala, J., Loberg, O., Nuorva, J., Hietanen, J.K., Nummenmaa, L., & Astikainen, P. (in press). Attentional bias to interpersonal aggression in depression. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.
4/2/21 New research protocol now out! Heiskanen, M.A., Honkala, S.M., Ojala, R.O., Lautamäki, R., Koskensalo, K., Lietzén, M., Hentilä, J., Saunavaara, V., Saunavaara, J., Helmiö, M., Löyttyniemi, E., Nummenmaa L., Collado, M.C., Malm, T., Lahti, L., Pietiläinen, K.H., Kaprio, J., Rinne, J.O., & Hannukainen, J.C. (2021). Systemic cross-talk between brain, gut, and peripheral tissues in glucose homeostasis: effects of exercise training (CROSSYS). Exercise training intervention in monozygotic twins discordant for body weight. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation.
2020
30/11/20 In these times everyone needs just a little human touch! A short popular science piece (in Finnish) showcasing our work now out in Hyvä Terveys magazine!
8/12/20 Finns love the dark, gloomy winter months, but how about our brains? New piece from emotion lab shows that seasonality causally influences opioidergic neurotransmission in mice and men! Sun, L.. Tang, J., Liljenbäck, H., Honkaniemi, A., Virta, J., Isojärvi, J., Karjalainen, T., Kantonen, T., Nuutila, P., Hietala, J., Kaasinen, V., Kalliokoski, K., Hirvonen, J., Scheinin, H. Helin, S., Eerola, K., Savontaus, E., Yatkin, E., Rinne, J.O., Roivainen, A., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Seasonal variation in brain mu-opioid receptor availability. The Journal of Neuroscience.
5/12/20 Sometimes big results take big time: Collection of these data begun 15 years ago, analysis started three years ago and now this massive gold standard reference paper is out in mighty Diabetes Care: Rebelos, E., Bucci, M., Karjalainen, T., Oikonen, V., Bertoldo, A., Hannukainen, J.C., Virtanen, K.A., Latva-Rasku, A., Hirvonen, J., Heinonen, I., Parkkola, R., Laakso, M., Ferrannini, E., Iozzo, P., Nummenmaa, L., & Nuutila, P. (in press). Insulin resistance is associated with enhanced brain glucose uptake during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia: A large-scale PET cohort. Diabetes Care.
8/11/20 Music evokes many feelings, but does not engage discrete emotion circuits in the brain. A large-scale pattern recognition study now out from Emotion Lab! Putkinen, V., Nazari-Farsani, S., Seppälä, K., Karjalainen, T. Sun, L., Karlsson, H., Hudson, M., Heikkilä, T.K., Hirvonen, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Decoding music-evoked emotions in the auditory and motor cortex. Cerebral Cortex.
27/10/20 Another long-standing paper finally published – adult attachment is associated with MOR but not SERT in the human brain: Turtonen, O., Saarinen, A., Nummenmaa, L., Tuominen, L., Tikka, M., Armio, R-L., Hautamäki, A., Laurikainen, H., Raitakari, O., Keltikangas-Järvinen, L., & Hietala, J. (in press). Adult attachment system links with brain μ–opioid receptor availability in vivo. Biological Psychiatry – Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
3/10/20 Our short and sweet commentary on brain-PET measurements of cerebral insulin resistance and obesity is now out! Rebelos, E., Nummenmaa, L., Dadson, P., Latva-Rasku, A., & Nuutila, P. (2020). Brain insulin sensitivity is linked to body fat distribution– the positron emission tomography perspective. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
28/08/20 U can’t touch this! Our new pattern recognition paper reveals relationship-specific neural coding of affective touch: Suvilehto, J.T., Renvall, V., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Relationship-specific encoding of social touch in somatosensory and insular cortices. Neuroscience.
17/08/20 Emotion Lab is recruiting! We are looking for 1-2 post-docs specialising in computational and systems neuroscience with large-scale PET & MRI data. Email Lauri for details and apply for the job here.
03/08/20 New paper out with the good old team! Readouts from the motor system can be used for decoding what facial expressions humans have seen, suggesting we automatically simulate others’ expressions to aid their recognition: Volynets, S., Smirnov, D., Saarimäki, H., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Statistical pattern recognition reveals shared neural signatures for displaying and recognizing specific facial expressions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
28/05/20 Another big one landed! Academy of Finland has decided to fund our big neuroinformatics project Social and environmental determinants of human brain function: A molecular and structural register-based neuroinformatics study.We’ll be recruiting soon so be prepared!
09/06/20 Sometimes we need to answer the Big Questions too, so here’s Lauri’s take on brain basis of consciousness in Finnish: Nummenmaa, L. (2020). Mistä tietoisuus syntyy? Tiede, 6, 2020.
22/05/20 More evidence for the role on opioid neurotransmission in mood disorders from the Emotion Lab – another collaborative masterpiece with the PET Centre Dream Team: Nummenmaa, L., Karjalainen, T., Isojärvi, J., Kantonen, T., Tuisku, J., Kaasinen, V., Joutsa, J., Nuutila, P., Kalliokoski, K., Hirvonen, J., Hietala, J. & Rinne, J. (in press). Lowered endogenous mu-opioid receptor availability in subclinical depression and anxiety. Neuropsychopharmacology.
2/05/20 Master of mu receptors a.k.a. Tatu Kantonen has landed his 1st PhD thesis paper and it’s got everything: Neuroinformatics, huge sample, Bayesian analysis and more cool results than you can handle: Kantonen, T., Karjalainen, T., Isojärvi, J., Nuutila, P., Tuisku, J., Rinne, J., Hietala, J., Kaasinen, V., Kalliokoski, K., Scheinin, H., Hirvonen, J., Vehtari, A., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Interindividual variability and lateralization of mu-opioid receptors in the human brain. NeuroImage.
23/03/20 A blast from the from the past when we could still make people cuddly in the scanner: Ultra-cool two-person fMRI paper finally out! Renvall, V., Kauramäki, J., Malinen, S., Hari, R., & Nummenmaa, L. (2020). Imaging real-time tactile interaction with two-person dual-coil fMRI. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
15/01/20 If you do brain-PET, you better check out our new preprocessing pipeline MAGIA developed by mastermind Tomi Karjalainen: Karjalainen, T., Tuisku, J., Santavirta, S., Kantonen, T., Bucci, M., Tuominen, L., Hirvonen, J., Hietala, J., Rinne J., & Nummenmaa, L. (2020). Magia: Robust automated image processing and kinetic modeling toolbox for PET neuroinformatics. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. You can install Magia to your own system on GitHub.
10/02/20 Fatty acid fever! New paper on old data with the good old gang: Rebelos, E., Hirvonen, J., Bucci, M., Pekkarinen, L., Nyman, M., Hannukainen, J.C., Iozzo, P., Salminen, P., Nummenmaa, L., Ferrannini, E., & Nuutila, P. (in press). Brain FFA uptake is elevated in morbid obesity, and is irreversible six months after bariatric surgery: a positron emission tomography study. Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism.
10/01/20 A webpage summarising our recent horror movie study is now out, including a database of the top 100 all-time scariest movies! Be sure to check it out here.
05/01/20 When the light begins to change, I sometimes feel a little strange, a little anxious when it’s dark – FEAR OF THE DARK! Our new paper on the brain at horror movies now out in NeuroImage: Hudson. M., Seppälä, K., Putkinen, V., Sun, L., Glerean, E., Karjalainen, T., Karlsson, H.K., Hirvonen, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Dissociable neural systems for unconditioned acute and sustained fear. NeuroImage.
2019
30/12/2019 Speeding up the radiologists’ workflow with machine learning! A new paper on ischemic stroke detection out! Farsani, S., Nyman, M., Karjalainen, T., Bucci, M., Isojärvi, J., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Automated segmentation of acute stroke lesions using a data-driven anomaly detection on diffusion weighted MRI. Journal of Neuroscience Methods.
11/11/2019 Men behaving badly (in traffic). Well, women too of course. Here’s a quick tutorial in Finnish from Tie & Liikenne magazine.
25/10/19 How obesity influences the brain? An up-to-date primer (in Finnish) in Diabetes magazine.
2/10/19 Another modern classic out! In a collaboration with FinnBrain we show in a huge sample that adult & infant facial expression recognition is practically unaffected by sex & parental status: Parsons, C., Young, C., Sinerva, E., Kajanoja, J., Nummenmaa, L., Korja R., Karlsson, L., Karlsson, H. (in press). Effects of perinatal status and gender on adults’ responses to infant and adult facial emotion. Emotion.
17/9/2019 Fascinating piece in Tiede -magazine (in Finnish) on why we enjoy horror so much, featuring ex-emotion lab rockstar Matthew Hudson!
16/9/2019. Another thesis is out & ready to be defended! Sandra’s PhD work Endogenous opioid system and human sociability will be tried & tested on Sept 28th!
5/8/2019. Holiday’s over and we keep on rockin’ in the free world – another two-person neuroimaging hit piece is out! Smirnov, D., Saarimäki, H., Glerean, E., Hari, R., Sams, M. & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Emotions amplify speaker–listener neural alignment. Human Brain Mapping.
18/4/2019 Emotions feel the same all over the world – Sonya’s first paper for her PhD thesis is now in press! Volynets, S., Glerean, E., Hietanen, J.K., Hari, R., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Bodily maps of emotions are culturally universal. Emotion.
12/4/2019 Another thesis out! Tomi’s masterpiece “Opioidergic regulation of human affiliative behavior: Evidence from positron emission tomography studies” now officially out, do download the e-thesis and read the press release! The Final Fight will be held on April 26t.
1/4/2019 U Can’t touch this! Our cross-cultural team shows that social touching is culturally universal. Suvilehto, J.T., Nummenmaa, L., Harada, T., Dunbar, R.I.M., Hari, R., Turner, R., Sadato, N., & Kitada, R. (in press). Cross-cultural similarity in relationship-specific social touching. Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences.
28/3/2019 Get your opioids rolling! Our new work shows how opioid agonist remifentanil biases how we see & feel the world: Heiskanen, T., Leppä, M., Suvilehto, J., Akural, E., Larinkoski, T., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Sams, M., Nummenmaa, L., & Kalso, E. (in press). The opioid agonist remifentanil increases subjective pleasure. British Journal of Anaesthesia.
14/2/2019: The show must go on! Emotion Lab in prime time – see the whole spectacle here.
10/1/2019: Helsingin Sanomat has a large feature on Emotion Lab – we rock!
2018
22/12/2018: A Christmas Gift for You from Emotion Lab: Lauri’s new piece on embodied consciousness in Aeon: It is not all in your head. Sometimes, it’s in your legs!
14/12/2018: Onni is alive! Emotion lab has released its new web experiment toolkit – be sure to check the preview before we put it on git. And make sure you try out the Great Yngwie Experiment!
14/11/2018: New venues for emotion lab in psychosis research! Cool new collaboration with Park lab in Vanderbilit: Torregrossa, L., Snodgrass, M., Hong, S.-J., Heathman, N., Glerean, E., Nummenmaa, L., & Park, S. (in press) Anomalous bodily maps of emotions in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
15/11/2018: Juulia Suvilehto has landed! All the way from Oxford she’s ready to defend her thesis Maintaining social bonds via touching: A cross-cultural study today. Be ready for some serious action – she’s surely a Rising Force!
11/11/2018: Celebrate the Father’s Day, Remembrance Day, and Corduroy Appreciation Day by reading about Exploring Emotions in UTU Life & Science!
14/10/2018: Fourth paper out and Tomi is ready to wrap up the thesis! Another fascinating PET-fMRI piece on emotion & opioids: Karjalainen, T., Seppälä, K., Glerean, E., Karlsson, H.K., Lahnakoski, J.M., Nuutila, P., Jääskeläinen, I-P., Hari, R., Sams, M., Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Opioidergic regulation of emotional arousal: A combined PET–fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex.
9/10/2018 Congratulations to Tatu for receiving a fantastic personal grant from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation for working on the role of opioid and endocannabinoid systems in appetite and obesity! We also express our cordial thanks to our funders – top research research is impossible without well-targeted funding!
26/09/2018 Book announcement! The new Finnish pop-sci book from the Emotion Lab is coming in Winter 2019: Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Tunnekartasto. Helsinki: Tammi.
28/08/2018 How does THAT make you feel? Map of human feeling space now out in PNAS: Nummenmaa, L., Hari, R., Hietanen, J.K., & Glerean, E. (in press). Maps of subjective feelings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. More info, press quality images and videos here.
20/08/2018 Neurokinin 1 receptors are not affected by major depression – the first-ever experimental demonstration using PET: Nyman, M.J., Eskola, O., Kajander, J., Jokinen, R., Penttinen, J., Karjalainen, T., Nummenmaa, L., Hirvonen, J., Burns, D. Hargreaves, R., Solin, O., & Hietala, J. (in press).Brain neurokinin-1 receptor availability in never medicated patients with major depression: A pilot study Journal of Affective Disorders.
12/8/2018 Lab getting back to business after summer vacation! Another fascinating paper on brain-body axis done with PET is out: Rebelos, E., Immonen, H., Bucci, M., Hannukainen, J.C., Nummenmaa, L., Honka, MJ., Soinio, M., Salminen, P., Ferrannini, E., Iozzo, P., & Nuutila, P. (in press). Endogenous glucose production is associated with brain glucose uptake in morbidly obese subjects. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
28/6/2018 Nice new collaboration with BML and Aalto University – will be useful for anyone working on pattern classification: Gotsopoulos, A., Saarimäki, H., Glerean, E., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Sams, M., Nummenmaa, L., & Lampinen, J. (in press). Reproducibility of importance extraction methods in neural network based fMRI classification. NeuroImage.
16/6/2018 New doctor in the house! Tiinuli successfully defended her thesis Neurobiology of Physical Exercise: Perspectives on Psychophysiological Effects and Opioidergic Neurotransmission today. Another smashing show – no prayer for the opponent!
15/6/2018 It’s grant time – excellent! This Friday we congratulate Lihua for landing a fantastic 3-year post-doc funding from the Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine! Party on, Lihua!
15/6/2018 The sun is out so time to hit the track for some good old fashioned endorphin rush (and also to read the paper by Tiinuli and UG): Saanijoki, T., Nummenmaa, L., Tuulari, J.J., Tuominen, L., Arponen, E., Kalliokoski, K. & Hirvonen, J. (in press). Aerobic exercise modulates anticipatory reward processing via the μ-opioid receptor system. Human Brain Mapping.
27/4/2018 Nice b-day present for the boss – our psychosis and sensory integration paper finally accepted for publication! Mäntylä, T., Nummenmaa, L., Rikandi, E., Lindgren, M., Kieseppä, T., Hari, R., Suvisaari, J., & Raij, T. (in press). Aberrant functioning of integrative hubs in first-episode psychosis during natural audiovisual processing. Biological Psychiatry
25/3/2018 Yet another nice collaboration with Aalto University’s BML and Patrik Vuilleumier’s group from Geneve: Decoding distributed nature of emotions from the brain with MVPA: Saarimäki, H., Ejthedian, L.F., Glerean, E., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Vuilleumier, P., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Distributed affective space represents multiple emotion categories across the brain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
10/04/2018 Antidepressants may help to counter depressive rumination – cool new clinical fMRI drug trial in collaboration with Helsinki University and Oxford University: Komulainen, E., Heikkilä, R., Nummenmaa, L., Raij, T., Harmer, K., Isometsä, E., & Ekelund, J. (in press). Short-term escitalopram treatment normalizes aberrant self-referential processing in major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders.
16/3/2018 Latest piece on our opioids, feeding, and obesity project now out: Nummenmaa, L., Saanijoki, T., Tuominen, L., Hirvonen, J., Tuulari, J.J., Nuutila, P., & Kalliokoski, K (in press). μ-opioid receptor system mediates reward processing in humans. Nature Communications.
28/2/2018 This year’s first publication comes with MORE YNGWIE MALMSTEEN! Check out our review (or at least Fig 1E) on brain basis of mutual understading: Nummenmaa, L., Lahnakoski, J., & Glerean, E. (in press). Sharing the social world via intersubject neural synchronization. Current Opinion in Psychology.
2/3/2018 Our nice MGH Martinos Center collaboration provides more evidence for opioid system and overeating: Joutsa, J.J., Karlsson, H.K., Majuri, J., Nuutila, P., Helin, S., Kaasinen, V., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Binge eating disorder and morbid obesity are associated with lowered mu-opioid receptor availability in the brain. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
2017
30/11/2017 The most difficult paper to publish in the lab’s history is finally out! Behold the future classic: Smirnov, D., Lachat, F., Peltola, T., Lahnakoski, J.M., Koistinen, O-P., Gleran, E., Vehtari, A., Hari, R., Sams, L., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Brain-to-brain hyperclassification reveals action-specific motor mapping of observed actions in humans. PLoS One.
18/12/2017 Looks like we’re on Santa’s “nice” list – another grant falling to the Emotion lab! This time we congratulate Tomi Karjalainen and thank the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg foundation.
20/11/2017 Our cordial thanks to the Valon Vuoksi foundation for supporting Lihua’s work in out social and antisocial brain project!
22/11/2017 Scientific American covers our work on feeding and opioid release! See also the original paper here, and be sure to read our work showing how brain’s opioid receptors contribute to obesity.
20/11/2017 Another nice grant to the Emotion lab! This time we congratulate Tomi Karjalainen and thank the Paulo fondation!
16/11/2017 Emotion lab is also sometimes diabetes lab! A new ultra-cool collaboration with Markku Laakso’s group out now: Latva-Rasku, A., Honka, M-J., Stancakova, A., Koistinen, H., Kuusisto, J., Guan, L., Manning, A., Stringham H., Gloyn, A., Lidgren, C., Collins, F., Mohlke, K, Scott, L., Karjalainen, T., Nummenmaa, L., Nuutila, P., & Laakso, M. (in press). A partial loss-of-function variant in AKT2 is associated with reduced insulin-mediated glucose uptake in multiple insulin sensitive tissues: a genotype-based callback positron emission tomography study. Diabetes.
10/11/2017 Ever gotten a “runner’s high” while working out? Hear Jussi “Uge” Hirvonen explain what PET reveals about exercise-induced euphoria in this cool Neuropsychopharmacology podcast. If you want more (as Yngwie fans should!) you can read our original paper here.
30/10/2017 Massive congratulations to Sandra Manninen for getting a nice grant for working on opioids and sociability, and Juulia Suvilehto for getting another one for investigating social touching. Go ladies! We cordially thank Alfred Kordelin Foundation for their geneorus support to our work!
27/10/2017 Halloween is soon here, and Matthew tells you (in Finnish) what we are afraid of, and why we like horror movies. Read the full story at Turun Sanomat!
10/10/2017 Turku PET Centre Brain Imaging course slides are now online. Go ahead and take a look if you did not hava a chance to attend!
30/9/2017 Further evidence confirming that emotional processing depends on awareness – a nice collaboration with Disa Sauter’s group: Lähteenmäki, M., Kauramäki, J., Sauter, D., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Auditory affective processing requires awareness. Emotion. See also our prior study on visual processing!
15/8/2017 Tomi and Lauri comment on the role of opioids in the highs and lows of human social life: Nummenmaa, L., & Karjalainen, T. (in press). Opioidergic regulation of pain and pleasure in human social relationships. Neuropsychopharmacology reviews.
24/08/2017 The emotional (dis)pleasures of grinding revealed by our dear Tiinuli: Saanijoki, T., Nummenmaa, L., Koivumäki, M., Löyttyniemi, E., Kalliokoski, K.K., & Hannukainen, J.C. (in press). Affective adaptation to repeated SIT and MICT protocols in insulin resistant subjects. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
21/08/2017 Very nice commentary on our laughter and opioids work by Fausto Caruana from the Parma group: Caruana, F. (2017). Laughter as a neurochemical mechanism aimed at reinforcing social bonds: integrating evidence from opioidergic activity and brain stimulation. The Journal of Neuroscience.
14/08/2017 The Emotion Lab just keeps on growing! We would like to welcome Vesa Putkinen and Sanaz Nazari Farsani to our wonderful team! You can read more about their work on our People page.
1/08/2017 It’s summer and time for some serious exercise! Go for the high-intensity interval training to make those opioids flow (and also check out our new paper): Saanijoki, T., Tuominen, L.J., Nummenmaa, L., Arponen, E., Kalliokoski, K., & Hirvonen, J. (in press). Acute aerobic exercise increases µ-opioid receptor availability in humans. Neuropsychopharmacology.
07/07/2017 Read our up-to-date mini-review & commentary on basic emotions and pattern recognition that will appear in a theme issue on neuroimaging of emotions curated by Tor Wager and Alex Shackman: Nummenmaa, L., & Saarimäki, H. (in press). Emotions as discrete patterns of systemic activity. Neuroscience Letters.
06/07/2017 The final piece of our opioids, feeding, and obesity project is now out, confirming that feeding releases opioids in healthy humans: Tuulari, J.J., Tuominen, L., de Boer, F., Hirvonen, J., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Feeding releases endogenous opioids in humans. The Journal of Neuroscience. See also our papers on how obesity downregulates cerebral opioid receptors, and how these adverse changes may be reversed with obesity surgery.
11/06/2017 We made it to the cover of Human Brain Mapping with our paper on channel surfing with Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, and 007. What a great illustration by our post-doc alumni Juha Lahnakoski!
03/05/2017 Another new PET-fMRI paper on opioidergic basis of sociability with the good old team: Karjalainen, T., Karlsson, H.K., Lahnakoski, J.M., Glerean, E., Nuutila, P., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Hari, R., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Dissociable roles of cerebral μ-opioid and type 2 dopamine receptors in vicarious pain: A combined PET–fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex.
16/05/2017 Cognitive Neuroscience Society covers our work on event integration while viewing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and James Bond during brain scans.
11/04/2017 A nice collaboration with PET Centre and Harvard, Oxford, & Aalto Universities with laughable findings: Manninen, S., Tuominen, L., Dunbar, R.I.M., Karjalainen, T., Hirvonen, J., Arponen, E., Hari, R., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Social laughter triggers endogenous opioid release in humans The Journal of Neuroscience.
30/03/2017 Wonderful to be collaborating with Jukka Hyönä’s group again – this time on object tracking: Li, J., Oksama, L., Nummenmaa, L. & Hyönä, J. (in press). Anger improves sustained attention on targets during dynamic multiple object tracking. Cognition & Emotion.
28/03/2017 We are recruiting scientists for our new flagship project on molecular neuroinformatics of CNS disorders. See here for more information.
26/03/2017 New Finnish mini-commentary on emotions, feelings, and well-being: Nummenmaa, L. (2017) Mistä puhumme kun puhumme tunteista. Tieteessä tapahtuu, 2/2017, 35-39.
24/03/2017 The Chief Customs Officers’ opinion (a.k.a review) on emotions and opioid circuits, including two meta-analyses, is now out: Nummenmaa, L. & Tuominen, L.T. (in press) Opioid system and human emotions. British Journal of Pharmacology.
22/03/2017 New paper fresh outta press, this time with Jesper Ekelund’s group: Komulainen, E., Glerean, E., Meskanen, K., Heikkilä, R., Nummenmaa, L., Raij, T.T., Lahti, J., Jylhä, P., Melartin, T., Isometsä, E., & Ekelund, J. (in press) Single dose of mirtazapine modulates whole-brain functional connectivity during emotional narrative processing. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
20/03/2017 Our cordial thanks to Sigrid Juselius Foundation for funding our large-scale neuroinformatics project on brain development and CNS disordes! Looks like we need to recruit soon again – stay tuned!
20/03/2017 New paper on natural event perception in collaboration with Aalto University and MPI: Lahnakoski, J., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press) Neural mechanisms for integrating consecutive and interleaved natural events. Human Brain Mapping.
09/03/2017 Updated GIT repository for our software tools. Please update your bookmarks.
23/02/2017 Our new paper done in collaboration with Jari Hietanen’s lab is out: Chen,T., Nummenmaa, L., & Hietanen, J.K. (in press). Eye contact judgment is influenced by perceiver’s social anxiety but not by their affective state. Frontiers in Psychology .
14/12/2016 Well done Tomi Karjalainen – yeat another nice grant to the lab! This one comes from Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg foundation, we express our cordial thanks for funding our research.
16/1/2017 Emotion lab is recruiting again! We’re looking for two post-docs in neuroimaging and a project researcher for data analysis / neuroinformatics . Please contact Lauri for further details.
2016
05/12/2016 Singing in the brain – see our new paper on audiovisual integration of speech and music: Salmi, J., Koistinen, O-P., Jylänki, P., Vehtari, A., Jääskeläinen, I-P., Mäkelä, S., Nummenmaa, L., Nummi-Kuisma, K., Nummi, I., & Sams, M. (in press). Distinct distributed neural signatures of natural audiovisual speech and music in the human auditory cortex. (in press). NeuroImage
29/11/2016 Congratulations to Tomi Karjalainen for receiving a personal grant from Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation!
18/11/2016 – Our new paper with University of Jyväskylä on eye movements during natural conversations is now out: Hautala, J. Lohberg, O., Hietanen, J.K., Nummenmaa, L., & Astikainen, P. (2016). Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations . Journal of Eye Movement Research, 9 , 1-12.
11/11/2016 – We celebrate the Corduory Appreciation Day with a new publication: Nummenmaa, L., Oksama, L., Glerean, E., & Hyönä, J. (in press). Cortical circuit for binding object identity and location during multiple object tracking. Cerebral Cortex
03/11/2016 – Our site has now moved to University of Turku domain at emotion.utu.fi
30/09/2016 – Human Emotion Systems Laboratory receives 300,000€ from the Academy of Finland for studying brain basis of obesity. Looks like we will be recruiting again soon – stay tuned!
01/09/2016 – Human Emotion Systems Laboratory has officially moved to Turku PET Centre. We are excited to start unraveling the molecular basis of emotions at the best human imaging centre in Finland. We are currently recruiting post-docs and PhD candidates, please contact us directly or wait for official announcements if you are interested in working with us!
18/05/2016 – Human Emotion Systems Laboratory receives 500,000€ from the Academy of Finland for studying opioidergic basis of emotions and sociability. We will be recruiting soon – stay tuned!
18/05/2016 – Our new study shows that surgical weight loss induces white and grey matter recovery in the morbidly obese: Tuulari, J.J., Karlsson, H.K., Antikainen, O., Hirvonen, J., Pham, T., Salminen, P., Helmiö, M., Parkkola, R., Nuutila, P., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Bariatric surgery induces white and grey matter density recovery in the morbidly obese: A voxel-based morphometric study. Human Brain Mapping.
12/04/2016 – Ville and the Martinos Center collaborators have worked out nice surface reconstruction methods for T1-EPI: Renvall, V., Witzel, T., Wald, L.L,, & Polimeni, J.R. (in press). Automatic cortical surface reconstruction of high-resolution T1 echo planar imaging data. Neuroimage.
11/04/2016 – Our theme issue “Attending to and neglecting people is now out in Phil Trans B .
See also our Introductory chapter to the issue: Hari, R., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (2016). Attending to and neglecting people: Bridging neuroscience, psychology and sociology. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B, 371, 1-9.
04/04/2016 – Ville and colleagues report cardiovagal responses to pain at 7 T in Phil Trans A: Sclocco, R., Reissner, F., Desbordes, G., Polimeni, J.R., Wald, L.L., Kettner, N.W., Kim, J., Garcia, R.G., Renvall, V., Bianchi, A.M., Cerutti, S., Napadow, V., & Barber, R. (in press). Neuroimaging brainstem circuitry supporting cardiovagal response to pain: a combined heart rate variability/ultra high-field (7 T) functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society Series A.
30/03/2016 – Mikko and Lauri discuss animal fears in Prisma Studio science documentary series (in Finnish).
25/03/2016 – Tomi’s first thesis paper on opioids and reward drive is out: Karjalainen, T., Tuominen, L., Manninen, S., Kalliokoski, K., Nuutila, P., Jääskeläinen, I.P., Hari, R., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Behavioural activation system sensitivity is associated with cerebral μ-opioid receptor availability. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
21/03/2016 – Detailed maps of human erogenous zones published: Nummenmaa, L., Suvilehto, J.T., Glerean, E., Santtila, P., & Hietanen, J.K. (in press). Topography of human erogenous zones. Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
11/03/2016 – New mini-review on brain basis of emotions (in Finnish) out today: Nummenmaa, L. (2016). Tunteiden neurobiologia. Lääkärilehti 10/2016.
05/03/2016 – Our introductory chapter on upcoming Phil Trans B theme issue “Attending and neglecting people” is now available: Hari, R., Sams, M., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Attending and neglecting people: Bridging neuroscience, psychology and sociology. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B.
03/03/2016 – New review on data-driven methods in social neuroscience and psychology: Adolphs, R., Nummenmaa, L., Todorov, A., & Haxby, J.V. (in press). Data-driven approaches in the investigation of social perception. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B.
23/02/2016 – New paper in press: Hietanen, J.K., Glerean, E., Hari, R., & Nummenmaa, L. (in press). Bodily maps of emotions across child development. Developmental Science.
11/2/2016 – We just started a cross-cultural study on animal fears. You may participate online here.
29/1/2016 – Coverage of the lab in Helsingin sanomat.