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Reposted by Mohith M. Varma (Mo)

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Now up at @oecs-bot.bsky.social ! Looking to wrap your head around concepts & terms (and debates) in emotion & mood research (“affective science”)? Here’s a go to. oecs.mit.edu/pub/bhn7j5s7...

Emotions, Moods, and Affective States
by Nicole C. Rust
Published on
Jul 16, 2026
Emotions, Moods, and Affective States

Contents
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The phenomena that comprise emotions, moods, and affective states are united by their valence—their pleasantness or unpleasantness—such as the pleasure of seeing a baby laugh or the aversion to smelling feces. Beyond this broadly accepted defining characteristic, the researchers who study them have a multitude of ideas about how to best define their constructs, what shapes them, and the most promising path toward understanding them scientifically. For instance, many researchers agree that emotions should be distinguished from moods, but not all agree on the criteria that differentiate them. Similarly, some restrict the terms emotion and mood to instances in which subjective

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Happy to contribute my reflections on some of the cutting edge research presented in a symposium #CNS2026 on the topic of mapping our emotional experiences in the brain. It was fun working on this blog post with @lisampmunoz.bsky.social ☺️

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Reposted by Mohith M. Varma (Mo)

Cambridge Neuroscience @camneuro.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

🔔Two weeks to go! Register now for our annual Seminar CNS2026 showcasing the breadth of interdisciplinary work that we do in Cambridge! 🧠This meeting is open to neuroscientists of every discipline and every stage of their careers, both from Cambridge and beyond! 📨Share & register: lnkd.in/dWEvgCzW

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

It was a real pleasure working with @lisampmunoz.bsky.social over four days of science, laughs, new friendships, and catching up with old ones! Hope to see you again in Boston or perhaps sooner in Cambridge!

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

To close the symposium, Regina Lapate extends the story past shock+picture lab pairings and into real life events: how our emotions influence the way we remember the timeline of our autobiographical memories. Fascinating and very carefully conducted work into emotion-memory-time dynamics! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Third speaker Joseph Dunsmoor~ with at least 4 fans in the audience (count me in too 🤣) asks: What happens when you look at pictures while getting mildly electrocuted⚡️ Turns out shocks can shift when you think you saw the picture. Great science but rough day for participant in that study! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Next up Andy Lee asking: do our emotions in terms of how intense they are and whether they are positive or negative may distort how we remember the time between past events? As usual with emotions… it’s complicated! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Kicking off the symposium on how emotion shapes our memory @danipalombo.bsky.social and her PhD student Chantelle Cocquyt by asking: does a reminder cue affect how you recall an emotional event differently if it comes before vs after it? Turns out this research reveals order matters! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Day 4: the final day of #CNS2026~ Join us this morning for the final poster session, 8-10 AM. One last chance to see lots of great posters and lively chats~ all the ingredients you need to start a chilly day in Vancouver with that dopamine spike! Coffee and breakfast available ☕️

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Cognitive Neuroscience Society @cogneuronews.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Congratulations @monicarosenb.bsky.social on your Young Investigator Award! Join us now for her #CNS2026 award talk, about neural signatures of sustained attention, with intro by @hartleylabnyu.bsky.social

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Restaurant name: Salmon n’ Bannock (maps.app.goo.gl/CwteyS13QRKX...), it’s a super cozy spot serving authentic Canadian cuisine! Highly recommend!! #CNS2026

maps.app.goo.gl

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

After a super hectic Day 2 #CNS2026, I kept Day 3 intentionally lighter~ fewer talks and more catching up! Lovely lunch with some current members from my former lab @HKU And a super memorable dinner with Jarrod Lewis-Peacock & Co. (@cjerinic.bsky.social) at a cozy family run restaurant (link 👇)

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Caleb Jerinic-Brodeur @cjerinic.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

I’ve been having a great time at @cogneuronews.bsky.social !! If you’ll be around for the final day of the meeting, come say hi during the last poster session (8-10am, Poster F34)! I’ll be sharing some new work on how dynamic memory control helps regulate intrusive thoughts!

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Wrapping up the symposium on naturalistic paradigms @honglab.bsky.social sharing some cutting edge research from his lab into the brain mechanisms supporting prosocial and cooperative behaviours in rats! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Now Nachum Ulanovsky joining remotely to take us into the social lives of bats 🦇 Apparently bats are not just tiny flying vampires🤣, instead they are very social animals! Incredible research on how bat brains track as bats navigate in their colonies and their interactions with other bats! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Up next @avitalhahamy.bsky.social using machine learning to track reactivation of narratively rich events (movie clips, stories). The brain seems to reliably “replay” them at event boundaries i.e. right before next clip begins, hinting this replay helps us understand what just happened! #CNS2026 👇

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Kicking off the Day 3 morning symposium on recent advances in naturalistic paradigms in neuroscience: Dominic Bach @bachlab.bsky.social presenting an immersive VR setup to study threat related behaviours like escape, avoidance, dynamic updating of goals. So cool and more on poster E96!! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

After the epic welcome reception on Day 1, Day 2 wouldn’t be complete without great food hehe Ended the night at a sushi bar after stumbling upon this spot (maps.app.goo.gl/viqbeAYbKdNg...) with some familiar and new faces~ and WOW Vancouver’s food scene has been incredibly good!!! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

#CNS2026 Day 2 reflection: Brain = 🔋, Social battery = 🪫 Fantastic posters ✅ Passionate science chats ✅ Great talks ✅ Food+Friends ✅ And ending the day on an inspiring high: @theamygdaloid.bsky.social proving you can start in Business Administration… and still become a neuroscience legend! 👇

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Ajay Satpute closed the symposium with a philosophy-of-science mic drop: if we go looking for neat, discrete emotions in the brain, we may just find what we assumed. He offered a constructivist twist by presenting evidence for variability in brain activations for the construct “fear” #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Third up: Heini Saarimäki, continuing symposium’s focus on discrete emotion representations and pushing it further by examining how these patterns extend beyond the brain into the body. Super cool findings on brain-body dynamics and how interoceptive signals influence emotional states! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Lovely catching up with @leemtllab.bsky.social and his group from @utoronto.ca over fantastic noodles! I’m honestly blown away by the quality and range of Asian food in Vancouver! Day 2 lunch spot recommendation: maps.app.goo.gl/ogoYtqSYLAPh... (18 min walk from conference venue) #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Up next, Patrik Vuilleumier extending story of tracking our emotions in the brain also using movie clips and linking brain activity for discrete emotions to cognitive processes like motivation. Tbh watching movie clips for science might be the best participant recruitment strategy ever! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Second symposium of the day, and one I’ve been most excited about: how our brains track emotions! Kicking things off, Kevin LaBar shows how machine learning can decode discrete emotions from fMRI data while people watch movie clips! #CNS2026 🧵👇

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Onto the final talk: Kevin Weiner is zooming in on the lateral PFC, using deep learning algorithms to identify cortical ridges and sulci. Amazing to see cutting-edge progress in using AI to augment neuroimaging data processing tasks that are so manually intensive! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Next up is Jinkang (Derrick) Wang diving into functional connectivity in the PFC of our closest evolutionary cousins: monkeys 🐒 Super cool and fine-grained look at how boundaries are organized in the monkey prefrontal cortex. #CNS2026 👇

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

At Invited Symposium 2 on precision mapping of prefrontal cortex (PFC), @moatazassem.bsky.social shares striking evidence of functionally distinct multiple-demand patches in PFC track category-selective images of objects vs faces vs letters vs other types of visual stimuli! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Grateful to everyone who stopped by my poster! So nice seeing both new and familiar faces ☺️ It was a joy to share the very first study from my PhD research on affective blunting! Thanks for the great questions, feedback and encouragement~ it made the poster session so fun and enriching! #CNS2026

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

I know it’s early morning on a SUNDAY… and yes, some of us are still recovering from last night’s epic welcome reception 😅 But if you happen to be well caffeinated, wander over to today’s first poster session 8-10 AM! There are many amazing posters… and one I’m particularly fond of (B19) 👀

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

We went to Maruhachi Ramen (maps.app.goo.gl/THVQXasJxBbf...) near Central Library and a 10 minute walk from JW Marriott ☺️

maps.app.goo.gl

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Proof that good food + great conversations fuel good science #CNS2026 with @fredbergmann.bsky.social, Maxi Becker and Leonardo Pettini

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Fantastic start to #CNS2026 at DataBlitz! Lots of cool findings already! One highlight for me: how differently people recall positive collective memories vs. personal memories, reflecting distinct functions of collectivistic vs individually experienced memory. Great talk: @signysheldon.bsky.social

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Excited to be heading to #CNS2026 in Vancouver this weekend! Come say hi if you’re around as I will be presenting some very promising results from the first completed study of my PhD work into affective blunting conducted @mrccbu.bsky.social ☺️ Poster Session B, March 8, 8-10 AM (Poster No. B19)

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵8/8 Special thanks to our reviewers, Kirsi Peltonen and Sarah Schäfer, and the editorial team at @nathumbehav.nature.com for their rigorous review, which helped significantly enhance the quality of our work :)

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵7/8 Massive thanks to an awesome team of collaborators, namely, co-first author Shengzi Zeng, Laura Singh, Emily A. Holmes, Jingyun Huang, Man Hey Chiu, and Xiaoqing Hu for their contributions to this project!

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵6/8 Complementing our study, we have created an interactive website with tools for in-depth exploration of our rich dataset, encouraging further research in trauma memory modulation: intrusivememory.shinyapps.io/shinymeta/

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵5/8 This framework, while preliminary, is a first step towards a deeper understanding of the underlying processes for techniques like Trauma Reminder + Tetris gameplay that show promise in reducing trauma intrusions both immediately and at delayed timepoint after trauma.

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵4/8 To grasp the HOW, we developed a categorization system based on each technique’s procedures and hypothesized mechanism. To probe the WHEN, we split the techniques based on their time of administration and examined their effect sizes within each timepoint.

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵3/8 Our work is guided by 2 pivotal questions: HOW these techniques work? WHEN are they effective? Insights from these Qs are crucial for both basic science and translational research into development of effective therapeutic interventions for trauma symptoms.

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Mohith M. Varma (Mo) @mohithvarma.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

🧵2/8 Synthesizing data across 134 articles covering 131 techniques on trauma intrusion modulation, spanning ~30 years of research, we assess how these techniques alter (i.e. increase or decrease) intrusions and associated outcomes, namely intrusion-related distress and symptoms.

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Michael C. Anderson @memorycontrol.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

How does the brain stop thoughts? Find out in my article in @natrevneuro.nature.com with Subbu Subbulakshmi & Maite Crespo-Garcia www.nature.com/articles/s41... that integrates 25 yrs of psychology and neuroscience on this vital function.@mrccbu.bsky.social sky.social #neuroskyence #neuroscience

nature.com

Brain mechanisms underlying the inhibitory control of thought - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

The capacity to prevent unwanted thoughts is important for cognitive function and mental health. Anderson et al. describe insights into the neural mechanisms of the inhibitory control of thought that ...

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