Short answer: Yes. Brain imaging research shows that experiencing awe, whether from a sunset, a vast landscape, or another perceptually overwhelming moment, measurably quiets activity in the brain’s self-referential network, the system involved in thinking about yourself and your own concerns. Separately, people who experience more awe in daily life tend to show lower levels of inflammatory markers linked to chronic disease.
What Happens in the Brain During Awe
Awe has a distinct neurological signature. According to an fMRI study published in Human Brain Mapping, researchers had participants watch awe-inducing, positive, or neutral videos while measuring brain activity. They found that regions of the default mode network, including the posterior cingulate cortex and angular gyrus, areas closely tied to self-reflective thought, were less strongly activated while participants watched awe-inducing content compared to when they were deliberately focused on an analytical task. The researchers concluded that a key feature of the awe experience is a reduced engagement in self-referential processing, which lines up closely with how people describe awe subjectively: a sense of their own concerns and self shrinking in the presence of something vast.
This “quieting of the self” isn’t just a poetic description; it’s a measurable pattern of reduced activity in a well-defined brain network. The same study found that regions of the fronto-parietal network, associated with externally directed attention, were more strongly activated during awe compared to ordinary positive or neutral content, reinforcing that awe pulls attention outward and away from internal rumination in a way few other emotional experiences do.
Awe also appears to have measurable effects beyond brain activity alone. Research from UC Berkeley, covered by ScienceDaily, had more than 200 young adults report their positive emotions over several days, then measured a marker of inflammation called Interleukin-6 in their saliva. The researchers found that people who reported experiencing more awe, wonder, and amazement had the lowest levels of this inflammatory marker, even after accounting for other positive emotions like joy and contentment. Since elevated inflammatory markers have been linked to conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to depression, this suggests awe’s effects may extend into genuine physical health territory, not just momentary mood.
It’s worth being appropriately careful about how far to take these findings. The inflammation research is correlational, meaning it shows a real association between awe and lower inflammation, not definitive proof that awe alone causes reduced disease risk over time. Researchers in this field generally frame awe as one contributing factor within a larger picture of emotional well-being and physical health, rather than a standalone intervention. Still, the combination of a clear brain imaging signature and an independent physiological marker gives awe’s effects on the brain and body a genuinely solid evidentiary basis.
How to Build More Awe Into Everyday Life
- You don’t need extraordinary experiences. Everyday moments like a sunset, a starry sky, or a dramatic weather change have been shown to reliably trigger measurable awe responses.
- Perceptually vast stimuli work best. Awe is most reliably triggered by things that challenge your sense of scale, whether that’s physical vastness (mountains, oceans) or conceptual vastness (a profound idea or piece of music).
- Give it your full attention. Since the brain effects involve reduced self-focus and increased external attention, briefly setting aside distractions during an awe-inducing moment likely matters.
- Treat it as a genuine wellness practice. Given the inflammation findings, regularly seeking out awe-inducing experiences may belong alongside sleep, exercise, and social connection as a legitimate contributor to long-term health.
So pausing for a sunset isn’t just a nice moment; brain imaging research suggests it genuinely, measurably shifts how your brain is working, at least for as long as the feeling of awe lasts.
