That Neuroscience Guy - The Neuroscience of Awe

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

In today's episode of That Neuroscience Guy, we discuss the neuroscience behind the feeling of awe.

Hi, my name is Olive Kirk Olson, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm not neuroscience guy. Welcome to the podcast. So today I want to talk about one of my favorite human experiences. Aw. And awe is a funny one because we all know what it feels like, but it's surprisingly hard to describe. You know, it's that feeling you get when you stand at the edge of something like the Grand Canyon, or in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Or you look at a night full stars, the sky is all lit up. Or you hear a piece of music that suddenly just almost brings you to tears and makes the world feel bigger than it did 30 seconds ago. It's that moment when you see a mountain or a cathedral or even a newborn baby. I know the first time I saw my son Owen, it was clearly awe. or the first time I saw Michael Jordan do something that seemed almost impossible. And in those moments just for a second, your brain goes quiet. And that quiet is kind of interesting.

The awe is not just happiness. It's not just surprise. It's not just beauty. Aw is what happens when the brain encounters something so vast, so complex, so powerful, or so meaningfully to you that the usual mental categories don't, quite fit. So on today's podcast, the neuroscience of awe. So what is awe? We kind of have to define it. Why does it make us feel small, but often in a good way? Why does it seem to change our sense of time, our sense of self, and even our sense of connection to other people? And could awe actually be good

for the brain? I think the answer is simple. Of course it is. Let's begin with the the basic psychology behind this. Researchers, you know, usually describe awe as having two key ingredients. The first is vastness and not just physical vastness, but the sense of something that's just so big or so unreal that it's almost incomprehensible. And the second is a need for accommodation.

We're going to dive into that a bit more. But like I said, vastness means that something feels bigger than us. It can be physically bigger. But it doesn't have to be. Like a mountain, the ocean or the night sky, but it doesn't have to be. But it can also be a concept, right? A concept that feels bigger. A brilliant idea can feel vast.

A moral act can feel vast. A scientific discovery can feel vast. I've had a few of those in my time, but not as many as I'd like. The first time you really understand evolution or time or the scale of the universe, there's mental vastness there. Your brain's trying to comprehend something, explain something, just feels larger than your usual framework. Now let's get back to accommodation, the second piece.

Basically, it's a fancy way of psychologists saying that the brain has to update its model of the world. And we've talked about that on previous episodes. If you think back to the left prefrontal and the right prefrontal, the left maintaining a worldview, but the right prefrontal kicking in to all. update a worldview. So the thing that you're looking at that's causing awe doesn't fit neatly into the world that you've created, the one that you expect. So that right prefrontal cortex has to stretch. It has to reorganize. It has to update your worldview. It's basically saying

the world is bigger, stranger, more beautiful, more frightening, or even more complicated than I thought. So let's update. And that's awe. It's not simply, I like this. It's a. It's not simply, I like this. is I have to make room for this, and that's accommodation. Now, from a neuroscience point of view, awe is fascinating because it seems to involve a bunch of different brain systems, attention, emotion, self-updating, and self-processing, and interpretation and meaning all at the same time. So with these complex constructs like awe, there's no single awe center in the brain, and hopefully you've realized that by now. The brain always works in parallel. So several systems are likely involved.

As I've said, there's your attentional system. Aw grabs your attention. And if you think back, that's the parietal cortex or parts of the parietal cortex. So when you see something awe-inspiring, the brain orients towards it. You stop what you're doing, you look, you listen, you take it in. This involves broad attentional networks, including areas in the parietal cortex and the frontal cortex that control where attention, goes.

Aw is not just a tension in the ordinary sense. It's a tension that feels almost involuntary. The stimulus, the thing in front of you, the thing causing awe seems to pull you out of yourself. That phrase, out of yourself, is important. Because one of the most interesting things about awe is that it reduces self-focus. People often report feeling small during awe experiences,

but not in a bad way. The feeling of small is just because you're trying to comprehend something so vast or so amazing. That can be oddly relieving sometimes. So normally our brain spent a lot of time thinking about ourselves. What do I need to do? How am I doing? What do people think of me? What did I say yesterday?

What am I worried about tomorrow? This kind of self-focused thinking is related in part to something we've talked about in the past, the default mode network. The default mode network, if you recall, includes areas like the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cinglet cortex, and parts of the pridal cortex. It tends to be active when we are thinking about ourselves, remembering the past,

imagine the future, constructing the stories about who we are. And the default mode network isn't bad. And a little bit of trivia I mentioned on the episode. It was actually found by accident. People started probing in fMRI. studies when the people weren't doing the task. So they started looking at the data during the baseline periods and the rest breaks. And that's when they discovered it. So it was sort of found by

accident. Now it's a key part of neuroscience. But the default mode network is essential. It helps us have an identity about ourselves. It helps us come up with plans. And basically it's like a mental narrator that will not stop talking to you, but only in the downtime. Now, awe may quiet that system, at least temporarily. All right? So it's impacting the default mode network. Say you're standing outside under a sky full of stars. The default mode network is just overwhelmed because the things that you're sort of ruminating on disappear. And they're just placed in a much larger context, at least for a few minutes. So this is one reason that awe can feel restorative. It interrupts that self-loop about yourself. It keeps the brain a break

from being the main character for a moment. Now, of course, there's the emotion because it almost feels like we wouldn't have an episode without the amygdala. So as awe, awe is usually positive, but not always comfortable. There's such a thing as threat-based awe. You know, if you're standing outside and there's a powerful storm coming towards you, or you're watching a volcano erupt, or you see the ocean or you're even on it during huge waves and swells. It can be awe-inspiring, but it can be frightening at the same time. Your brain's basically going, you know, this is kind of magnificent, but it could also kill me.

So awe can involve positive emotional systems and fear-related systems, and the meddala takes care of both for you. Positive awe basically also involves reward and learning systems. Because it might feel pleasurable, all right? Not in the same way as eating chocolate or, you know, getting a text message from something you care about. But it's a deeper kind of reward where you just go, wow, this is cool. And you know what that involves, dopamine. So I think this is one of the reasons that all is so interesting.

It's really not about wanting more of something. It's about being changed by something, something that's making you really sort of really rethink how you see the world. And awe can change our perception over time. There's studies on this. You know, they report that time seems to slow down during these moments. And, you know, the world is pausing. One other possibility is that awe pulls attention into the present moment, an explanation for this time slowing down. So when the brains deeply engage with the present, time can feel expanded. This is similar to what happens in flow states, meditation, and some intense emotional experiences. The brain's usual clock isn't working. It's being distorted by this sensation. In this case, we're talking about awe. So when awe increases attention

and reduces that self-focused mental chatter, the present moment may feel a bit bigger than it actually is. So that's a thing there. All also affects social behavior. It's another reason I find it interesting. People who experience often and report feeling more connected to others, more generous, and less focused on their own individual

concerns. You know, I did an episode once about walking the commino to Santiago, and I remember getting to Santiago and standing in front of the church at the end of the Camino. And I did feel connected to the people there. There's no doubt about that. So why is that then? Well, one idea is that awe can produce what researchers call the small self. It sounds negative, but it isn't. The small self is a feeling that you are part of something larger than yourself, a community, nature, history, the universe, life itself. So when the self becomes smaller, other people may become more important. So that self-ego part where you're constantly focused on, it seems to disappear and move away. So science, you know, could even create awe.

thinking about the brain can be awe-inspiring, right? So right now, if you ponder your brain and what's actually happening, you have 86 billion neurons approximately, trillions of interconnections. Just think about what those numbers mean. And in there, there's electrical signals, chemical signals, and somehow that's creating everything in your life, memory, love, decision-making, grief, humor. your ability to wonder about the brain in the first place. And that could give you a sense of awe.

I know it does when I think about it. So hopefully you found that interesting, the neuroscience of awe. It's something that I bumped into recently. I had an experience of awe. And I was actually in Bruges, Belgium. And I just was looking around at just how beautiful downtown Bruges is. And if you've never been to Bruges, I'd put that high on the level. lists that a lot of people don't visit, but it's worth seeing. And I had a moment of awe. And I'm

going to have one in a couple of hours when I go pick up my son from the airport because he's coming to visit. Anyways, don't forget to check out the website, that neuroscience guy.com. There, there's links to Etsy where we sell our merch, Patreon, and you know that the money on Patreon goes to supporting the graduate students. Those of you that have signed up, it really means a lot when I can give the rest of the team a bit of cash to help them pay their rent or their tuition. Don't forget social media, X threads and Instagram, at that neurosag guy. And also you can email us at that neuroscience guy at gmail.com. Tell us what you want to know about the neuroscience of daily life.

And as ever, of course, the podcast itself. Thank you so much for listening and please subscribe if you haven't already. My name is Olive Kirk Olson and I am that neuroscience guy. I'll see you soon for another full episode. so of the podcast.