Adam Haar Horowitz

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This preliminary study investigates the potential for a technique that enables purposeful guiding of dream content (Targeted Dream Incubation; TDI) to change the degree to which an individual feels in control of their dreams (Dream Self-Efficacy; DSE). DSE is a subset of a larger concept of self-efficacy relating to one’s belief in their own abilit...

We introduce ChillsDB the first validated database of audiovisual stimuli eliciting aesthetic chills (goosebumps, psychogenic shivers) in a US population. To discover chills stimuli “in the wild”, we devised a bottom-up, ecologically-valid method consisting in searching for mentions of the emotion’ somatic markers in user comments throughout social...

The link between dreams and creativity has been a topic of intense speculation. Recent scientific findings suggest that sleep onset (known as N1) may be an ideal brain state for creative ideation. However, the specific link between N1 dream content and creativity has remained unclear. To investigate the contribution of N1 dream content to creative...

Interoception—the perception of internal bodily signals—has recently emerged as an area of significant interest due to its potential implications in emotion and the prevalence of dysfunctional interoceptive processes across psychopathological conditions. Despite the importance of interoception in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, its experimen...

Chills are a peak emotional experience induced by stimuli such as music, films, and speeches. The emotional consequences of chills in terms of valence and arousal are still debated and the existing empirical data is conflicting. In this study, we tested the effects of ChillsDB, an open-source repository of chills-inducing stimuli, on the emotional...

We introduce ChillsDB, the first validated database of audiovisual stimuli eliciting aesthetic chills (goosebumps, psychogenic shivers) in a US population. To discover chills stimuli “in the wild”, we devised a bottom-up, ecologically-valid method consisting in searching for mentions of the emotion's somatic markers in user comments throughout soci...

Headworn Virtual Reality technologies which engage the eyes and ears to transport the user to a new reality are, by definition, disembodied: They take the mind somewhere the body cannot follow. This creates two schisms simultaneously: first, the head is separated from the body; second, the senses of sight and hearing are incongruent with touch, int...

Previous studies on aesthetic chills (i.e., psychogenic shivers) demonstrate their positive effects on stress, pleasure, and social cognition. We tested whether we could artificially enhance this emotion and its downstream effects by intervening on its somatic markers using wearable technology. We built a device generating cold and vibrotactile sen...

Recent research in psychology distinguishes levels of consciousness into a tripartite model-conscious, unconscious and metaconscious. HCI technologies largely focus on the conscious pathway for computer-to-human interaction, requiring explicit user attention and action. In contrast, the other two pathways provide opportunities to create new interfa...

Information processing during sleep is active, ongoing and accessible to engineering. Protocols such as targeted memory reactivation use sensory stimuli during sleep to reactivate memories and demonstrate subsequent, specific enhancement of their consolidation. These protocols rely on physiological, as opposed to phenomenological, evidence of their...

We explore the application of a wide range of sensory stimulation technologies to the area of sleep and dream engineering. We begin by emphasizing the causal role of the body in dream generation, and describe a circuitry between the sleeping body and the dreaming mind. We suggest that nearly any sensory stimuli has potential for modulating experien...

Historically, multiple theories have posited an active, causal role for perceived bodily states in the creation of human emotion. Recent evidence for embodied cognition, i.e. the role of the entire body in cognition, and support for models positing a key role of bodily homeostasis in the creation of consciousness, i.e. active inference, call for th...

Recent technological advances coupled with progress in brain and psychological sciences allow the controlled induction and regulation of human psychophysiological states. These progresses often aim toward the goal of developing human-machine interfaces to improve human factors such as mental health, human relations, well-being and empathy. In this...

This research centers on the question of whether interfacing with dreams can help us explore and augment the creative potential of our minds. The dreaming experience at sleep onset, called hypnagogia, is the main focus of this thesis: these first minutes of sleep provide ideal conditions for incubating specific dream content and recalling it after...

Current HCI research overlooks an opportunity to create human-machine interaction within the unique cognition ongoing during dreams and drowsiness. During sleep onset, a window of opportunity arises in the form of Hypnagogia, a semi-lucid sleep state where we begin dreaming before we fall fully unconscious. To access this state, we developed Dormio...