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Under Review:
Conference Proceedings
Book Chapters
Media Coverage
Under Review:
- Chen, D., Kragel P.A., Kross, Z., Savoca, P.W., Wald, L.L., Bianciardi, M., Wager, T.D., Choi J-K, Zhang, J., Quigley, K.S., Satpute, A.B., Barrett, L.F.,* Theriault, J.E.* (under review). Modality-specific reactive and predictive activity in the human superior colliculus for visual and somatosensory processing.
- * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- Chen, D., Kragel, P. A., Wager, T. D., Wald, L. L., Bianciardi, M., Satpute, A. B., Quigley, K. S., Barrett, L. F.*, Katsumi, Y.*, & Theriault, J. E.* (under review). Layer-dependent superior colliculus activity during working memory task.
- * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- [Preprint]
- Lee, K., Rodriguez, J.P., Hartley, L., Zhang, J., Kragel, P.A., Chanes, L., Wager, T.D., Quigley, K.S., Wald, L.L, Bianciardi, M., Barrett, L.F., Theriault, J.E., & Satpute, A.B. (under review). Functional Architecture of the Human Hypothalamus: Cortical Coupling and Subregional Organization Using 7-Tesla fMRI.
- McVeigh, K., Smart, A., Satpute, A.B., Quigley, K.S., Theriault, J.E., Barrett, L.F. (under review). What can be discovered about the nature of emotion using machine learning?
- Shaffer, C., Kragel, P.A., Wager, T.D., Wald, L.L., Bianciardi, M., Quigley, K.S., Barrett, L.F., Satpute, A.B. Theriault, J.E. (in prep). Distinct spatial patterns of neural and physiology-related activity in the human periaqueductal grey during anticipatory social stress.
- Shaffer, C., Hoemann, K., Theriault, J.E. (in prep). What psychology can learn from systems biology.
- Passas, R., Rodriguez, J., Klein, B., Sennesh, E., Khan, Z., Theriault, J.E. (in prep). Agent based feedback models of a “sense of should”.
- Zhang, J., Chen, D., Deming, P., Srirangarajan, T., Theriault, J.E., Kragel, P.A., Hartley, L., Lee, K.M., McVeigh, K., Wager, T., Wald, L.L., Satpute, A.B., Quigley, K.S., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Barrett, L.F.*, Bianciardi, M.* (2025). Cortical and subcortical mapping of the allostatic-interoceptive system in the human brain using 7 Tesla fMRI. Nature Neuroscience. DOI: s41593-025-02087-x
- * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- Theriault, J.E., Katsumi, Y., Reimann, H.M., Zhang, J., Deming, P., Dickerson, B.C., Quigley, K.S., & Barrett, L.F. (2025). It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function. Neuron. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.09.028
- Barrett, L. F., Atzil, S., Bliss-Moreau, E., Chanes, L., Gendron, M., Hoemann, K., Katsumi, Y., Kleckner, I. R., Lindquist, K. A., Quigley, K. S., Satpute, A. B., Sennesh, E., Shaffer, C., Theriault, J. E., Tugade, M., & Westlin, C. (2025). The Theory of Constructed Emotion: More Than a Feeling. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 20(3), 392–420. DOI: 10.1177/17456916251319045
- Fischbach, A., Satpute, A., Quigley, K. S., Kragel, P. A., Bianciardi, M., Wald, L. L., Wager, T., Barrett, L. F.*, & Theriault, J.* (2024). 7 Tesla evidence for columnar and rostral–caudal organization of the human periaqueductal grey response in the absence of threat: A working memory study. Journal of Neuroscience, e1757232024 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1757-23.2024
- [Open Access Paper] * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- Westra, E., Fitzpatrick, S., Brosnan, S., Gruber, T., Hobaiter, C., Hopper, L., Kelly, D., Krupenye, C., Luncz, L., Theriault, J., Andrews, K. (2024). In search of animal normativity: A framework for studying social norms in nonhuman animals. Biological Reviews, 99(3), 1058-1074. DOI: 10.1111/brv.13056
- Theriault, J.E. (2024). “I should” versus “I want to”: Can Heyes’ cultural cognitive evolutionary account explain the phenomenology of normativity? Perspectives in Psychological Science, 19(1), 72-74. DOI: 10.1177/17456916231187412
- Theriault, J.E., Shaffer, C., Dienel, G.A., Sander, C.Y., Hooker, J.M., Dickerson, B.C., Barrett, L.F.*, Quigley, K.S.* (2023). Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 153, 105373. A functional account of stimulation-based aerobic glycolysis and its role in interpreting BOLD signal intensity increases in neuroimaging experiments. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105373
- [Open Access Paper] * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- Westlin, C., Theriault J.E., Katsumi Y., Nieto-Castanon, A., Kyuci, A., Ruf, S.F., Brown, S., Pavel, M., Brooks, D.H., Quigley, K.S., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Barrett, L.F. (2023). Improving the study of brain-behavior relationships by revisiting basic assumptions. Trends in Cognitive Science, 27, 246-257. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.12.015
- Katsumi, Y., Theriault, J.E., Quigley, K. S., and Barrett, L.F. (2022). Allostasis as a core feature of hierarchical gradients in the human brain. Network Neuroscience, 6(4), 1010-1031. DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00240
- Kim, M.J*, Theriault, J.*, Hirschfeld-Kroen, J., Young, L. (2022). Reframing of moral dilemmas reveals an unexpected "positivity bias" in updating and attributions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 101, 104310. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104310
- [Preprint] * These authors contributed equally to this work.
- Krause, P., Gustafson, D., Theriault, J., Young, L. (2022). Knowing is half the battle: How education decreases the fear of terrorism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 66, (7-8), pp. 1147-1173. DOI: 10.1177/00220027221079648
- Sennesh, E., Theriault, J., Erdogmus, D., Brooks, D., van de Meent, J-W., Barrett, L.F., Quigley, K.S. (2022). Interoception as modeling, allostasis as control. Biological Psychology, 167, 108242. DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108242
- Kragel, P. A., Čeko, M., Theriault, J., Chen, D., Satpute, A. B., Wald, L. W., Lindquist, M. A., Feldman Barrett, L., & Wager, T. D. (2021). A human colliculus-pulvinar-amygdala pathway encodes negative emotion. Neuron, 109(15), 2404-2412.e5. DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2021.06.001
- [PDF]
- Theriault, J. E., Young, L., Barrett, L.F. (2021). The sense of should: A biologically-based framework for modeling social pressure. Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 100–136. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.01.004
- [Preprint] [Combined Target Article, Comments, & Response]
- Commentary:
- Constant, A., Friston, K. J., & Ramstead, M. J. D. (2021). What kind of explanation is the constructing and coasting strategy? Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 80–82. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.06.003
- Fotopoulou, A. (2021). Mentalising allostasis: The sense that I should eat. Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 20–23. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.09.002
- Jebari, J. (2021). Beyond the metabolic costs of prediction error. Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 18–19. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.11.001
- Rai, T. S. (2021). Toward a moral psychology untethered from long-term cooperation. Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 7–8. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.12.002
- Tsakiris, M. (2021). How should the political animals of the 21st century feel? Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 77–79. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.06.008
- Tummolini, L., & Pezzulo, G. (2021). The epistemic value of conformity. Physics of Life Reviews, 36, 74–76. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2020.06.010
- Response:
- Theriault, J.E., Young, L., Feldman Barrett, L.F. (2021). Situating and extending the sense of should. Physics of Life Reviews, 37, 10–16. DOI:10.1016/j.plrev.2021.01.001
- Theriault, J., Waytz, A., Heiphetz, L., & Young, L. (2020). Theory of Mind network activity is associated with metaethical judgment: An item analysis. Neuropsychologia, 143, 107475. DOI:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107475
- Theriault, J.E., Coleman, M., Feldman, M.J., Fridman, J.D., Sennesh, E., Barrett, L.F.*, Quigley, K.S.* (2020). Beginning with biology: “Aspects of cognition” exist in the service of the brain’s overall function as a resource-regulator, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e26. DOI:10.1017/S0140525X19001705
- * These authors jointly supervised this work.
- [Preprint]
- Castelhano, M.S., Fernandes, S. & Theriault, J. (2019). Examining the Hierarchical Nature of Scene Representations in Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 45(9), 1619–1633. DOI:10.1037/xlm0000660
- Klein, R.A. Vianello, M., Hasselman, F., ... Theriault, J., ... Nosek, B. (2018). Many Labs 2: Investigating variation in replicability across samples and settings. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(4), 443–490. DOI:10.1177/2515245918810225
- Theriault, J. & Young, L. (2018) Not as distinct as you think: Reasons to doubt that morality comprises a unified and objective conceptual category. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41(e114). DOI:10.1017/S0140525X18000195
- Theriault, J., Waytz, A., Heiphetz, L. & Young, L. (2017). Examining overlap in behavioral and neural representations of morals, facts, and preferences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(11), 1586–1605. DOI:10.1037/xge0000350
- Theriault, J., Krause, P. & Young, L. (2017). Know thy enemy: Education about terrorism improves social attitudes toward terrorists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(3), 305–317. DOI:10.1037/xge0000261
- Harkness, K.L., Theriault, J.E., Stewart, J. G. & Bagby, R. M. (2014). Acute and chronic stress exposure predicts one-year recurrence in adult outpatients with residual depression symptoms following response to treatment. Depression and Anxiety. 31(1), 1–8. DOI:10.1002/da.22177
- [PDF]
- Harkness, K.L., Washburn, D.W., Theriault, J.E., Lee, L. & Sabbagh, M.A. (2011). Maternal history of depression is associated with enhanced theory of mind in depressed and non-depressed adult women. Psychiatric Research, 189(1), 91–96. DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2011.06.007
Conference Proceedings
- Leibo, J., Levine, S., Michael, J., Theriault, J.E., Tummolini, L., (2025). I Know I Should: Normative Competence From Biology To AI. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
- Sennesh, E., Theriault, J.E., van de Meent, J.-W., Barrett, L.F., & Quigley, K.S. (2022). Deriving time-averaged active inference from control principles. 3rd International Workshop on Active Inferences (AWAI), 2022.
Book Chapters
- Barrett, L.F., Theriault, J.E. (2025). What's real? A philosophy of science for social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, E. Finkel & W. Mendes (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Psychology, 6th Edition. DOI: 10.70400/BPQW3358
- Theriault, J.E. (2023). Morality and model coherence: A constructivist and biologically tractable account of moral motivation. In M. K. Berg & E. C. Chang (Eds.), Motivation and morality: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 205–244). American Psychological Association.
- Theriault, J.E., Young, L. (2014). Taking an “intentional stance” on moral psychology. In J. Sytsma (ed.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Mind. Continuum, 101-124.
- [PDF]
Media Coverage
- Mapping the sense of what's going on inside. New York Times, 11/25/2025.
- Why are people crashing out? Emotional breakdowns have gone viral. Northeastern Global News, 07/08/2025
- How much energy does it take to think? Quanta Magazine, 06/04/2025
- Your moral compass is tied to how in tune you are with your body, study hints. LiveScience. 05/28/2025
- Why you might feel weird when you go maskless: A barefaced trip to Trader Joe’s and the psychology of social norms. Slate, 06/03/2021
- Variation is the stuff of life. So why can it make us uncomfortable? The Guardian, 03/04/2021
- Are you a liberal? Are you sure? Reasons to be Cheerful, 09/15/2020
- The metaethics of moral claims, Parsing Science Podcast, 8/4/2020
- When it comes to defining ‘terrorism,’ there is no consensus, PBS Newshour, 2/26/2017
- Beyond good and evil: New science casts light on morality in the brain, WBUR, 8/7/2014