Edward Vessel (he/they) is the Eugene Surowitz Assistant Professor of computational cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the City College of New York. His research group, the Visual Neuroaesthetics Lab, uses behavior, brain imaging and computation to study the psychological and neural basis of aesthetic experiences, creative insight and curiosity.
He received his bachelor’s from Johns Hopkins and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Southern California. Before coming to CCNY, Dr. Vessel was a Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany, and was formerly co-director of the New York University Artlab. He is Secretary General of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.
Education
- PhD University of Southern California
- BA The Johns Hopkins University
Courses
- PSY 25400 Mind, Brain and Experience
- PSY V5700 Biological Basis of Behavior
- PSY B9805 Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts
- Conwell, C., Graham, D., Boccagno, C. & Vessel, E. A. (2025). The Perceptual Primacy of Feeling: Affectless visual machines explain a majority of variance in human visual visually-evoked affect. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (4) e2306025121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.230602512
- Christensen, J.F., Muralikrishnan, R., Münzberg, M., Castaño-Manías, B., Khorsandi, S., Vessel, E.A. (2024) Can 5 minutes of finger actions boost creative incubation? Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-024-00306-0
- Bignardi, G., Smit, D.J., Vessel, E.A., Trupp, M.D., Ticini, L.F., Fisher, S.E., Polderman, T.J.C. (2024). Genetic effects on variability in visual aesthetic evaluations are partially shared across visual domains. Communications Biology 7(55). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05710-4.
- Vessel, E.A., Pasqualette, L., Uran, C., Koldehoff, S., Vinck, M. (2023). Self-relevance predicts the aesthetic appeal of real and synthetic artworks generated via neural style transfer. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231188107
- Trupp, M.D., Bignardi, G., Specker, E., Vessel, E.A., Pelowski, M. (2023). Who benefits from art viewing, and how: the role of pleasure, meaningfulness, and trait aesthetic responsiveness in computer-based art interventions for well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 145: 107764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107764
- Golbabaei, S., Christensen, J.F., Vessel, E.A., Kazemian, N., Borhani, K. (2022). The Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment (AReA) in Farsi Language: A scale validation and cultural adaptation study. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000532
- Welke, D., Vessel, E.A. (2022). Naturalistic viewing conditions increase task engagement and aesthetic preference but have only minimal impact on EEG quality. Neuroimage, 119218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119218
- Strijbosch, W., Vessel, E.A., Welke, D., Mitas, O., Gelissen, J., Bastiaansen, M. (2022). On the neuronal dynamics of aesthetic experience: Evidence from electroencephalographic oscillatory dynamics. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(2). https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01812
- Vessel, E.A., Ishizu, T., Bignardi, G. (2022). Neural correlates of visual aesthetic appeal. In M. Skov & M. Nadal (Ed.). Routledge Intl Handbook of Neuroaesthetics. London: Routledge. Pp. 103-133. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003008675-7/neural-correlates-visual-aesthetic-appeal-edward-vessel-tomohiro-ishizu-giacomo-bignardi
- Vessel, E.A., Starr, G.S. (2022). Imaging the subjective. In A. Chatterjee & E. Cardillo (Ed.). Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics Into Focus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0024
- Vessel, E.A., Yue, X., Biederman, I. (2022). Scene preferences, aesthetic appeal and curiosity: revisting the neurobiology of the infovore. In A. Chatterjee & E. Cardillo (Ed.). Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics Into Focus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0013
- Isik, I., Vessel, E.A. (2021). From visual perception to aesthetic appeal: Brain responses to aesthetically appealing natural landscape movies. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15:676032. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.676032
- Welke, D.W., Purton, I., Vessel, E.A. (2021). Inspired by art: Higher aesthetic appeal elicits increased felt inspiration in a creative writing task. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000393
- Vessel, E.A. (2021). Neuroaesthetics. In: Della Sala, S. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2nd Ed., vol 3. Elsevier. Pp. 661-670. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.24104-7
- Schlotz, W., Wallot, S. Omigie, D., Masucci, M.D., Hoelzmann, S.C., Vessel, E.A. (2020). The Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment (AReA): A screening tool to assess individual differences in responsiveness to art in English and German. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000348
- Isik, A.I., Vessel, E.A. (2019). Continuous ratings of movie watching reveal idiosyncratic dynamics of aesthetic enjoyment. PLoS ONE 14 (10): e0223896. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223896
- Vessel, E.A., Isik, A.I., Belfi, A.M., Stahl, J.L., Starr, G.G. (2019). The default-mode network represents aesthetic appeal that generalizes across visual domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sep 2019, 201902650, https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902650116
- Belfi, A.M.*,Vessel, E.A.*, Brielmann, A., Isik, A.I., Chatterjee, A., Leder, H., Pelli, D.G., Starr, G.G. (2019). Dynamics of aesthetic experience are reflected in the default-mode network. NeuroImage, 188, 584-597. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2018.12.017 (* shared first authorship)
- Belfi, A. M., Kasdan, A., Rowland, J., Vessel, E. A., Starr, G. G., & Poeppel, D. (2018). Rapid timing of musical aesthetic judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(10), 1531-1543. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000474
- Vessel, E.A., Maurer, N.M., Denker, A.H., Starr, G.G. (2018). Stronger shared taste for natural aesthetic domains than for artifacts of human culture. Cognition, 179, 121-131. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.009
- Belfi, A. M., Vessel, E. A., & Starr, G. G. (2018). Individual ratings of vividness predict aesthetic appeal in poetry. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(3), 341-350. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000153
- Vessel, E.A., Biederman, I., Subramaniam, S., Greene, M.R. (2016). Effective signaling of surface boundaries by L-vertices reflect the consistency of their contrast in natural images. Journal of Vision, 16(9): 15, 1-10, https://dx.doi.org/10.1167/16.9.15
- Vessel, E.A., Stahl, J., Maurer, N., Denker, A., Starr. G.G. (2014). Personalized visual aesthetics. Proc. SPIE 9014, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XIX, 90140S, 1-8. https://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2043126
- Vessel, E.A., Starr, G.G., Rubin, N. (2013). Art reaches within: aesthetic experience, the self and the default-mode network. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7:258, https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2013.00258
- Vessel, E.A., Starr, G.G., Rubin, N. (2012). The brain on art: Intense aesthetic experience activates the default mode network. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6:66, https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00066
- Vessel, E.A., & Rubin, N. (2010). Beauty and the beholder: Highly individual taste for abstract, but not real-world images. Journal of Vision, 10(2): 18, 1-14, https://dx.doi.org/10.1167/10.2.18
- Yue, X, Vessel, E.A., & Biederman, I. (2007). The neural basis of scene preferences. NeuroReport, 16(6), 525-529. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0b013e328091c1f9
- Biederman, I. & Vessel, E.A. (2006). Perceptual pleasure and the brain. American Scientist, 94, 249-255. https://dx.doi.org/10.1511/2006.59.247
