EVAlabs Publications
Below you will find the publications of the EVAlabs teams. Browse our latest articles, conference papers and collaborative works to see how our research contributes to the science of aesthetics.
Our Publications
2026
Fekete A, Maidhof R, Specker E, Gartus A, Nater UM, Leder H. Registered Report: How does art impact pain and stress? Exposure to multimodal art (Music + Visual) and music alone enhances pain tolerance more than visual art, but neither art form impacts autonomic or endocrine markers. PLoS ONE. 2026 May 5;21:e0334060. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0334060
Chana K, Dehove M, Mikuni J, Specker E, Knoll AL, Barrière T et al. Aesthetic components of urban environments and their relation to wellbeing: a scoping review. Cities & Health. 2026 Jan 20;10(2):491-512. doi: 10.1080/23748834.2025.2569732
Avram D, Dehove M, Oberzaucher E, Leder H, Mikuni J. How Familiar Art Shapes Urban Experience: Field and Laboratory Studies on Environmental Evaluation, Restorative Potential, and Well-being. Frontiers in Psychology. 2026 Jan 15.
Pelowski M, Marengo E, Cotter KN, Kühnapfel C, Speidel K, Fingerhut J. Designing Emotions as Mediators of Attitude Change from Socially-Focused Art Exhibitions: Two Studies of Matched Artist/Curator Intentions and Viewer Response on the Refugee Crisis and Climate Awareness. Empirical Studies of the Arts. 2026 Jan;44(1):195-255. doi: 10.1177/02762374251349376
Roth L, Kawabata H, Leder H. Universal, Cultural, or Individual? An Intercultural Assessment of Shared Proportions of Private Taste in Aesthetic Appreciation. Empirical Studies of the Arts. 2026 Jan;44(1):5-21. doi: 10.1177/02762374251334962
Geretsegger M, Meling HMK, Savinova A, Aßmus J, Dy CL, Mydland TS et al. Fighting Addictions, improving Lives through COmprehensive drug rehabilitation with music (FALCO): Protocol for an international randomised controlled trial. 2026. doi: 10.64898/2026.02.19.26346573
2025
Mikuni J. The Frontiers of Art Viewing Research: Present and Future Perspectives Though Spatial Context, Viewer Diversity, and Well-being outcomes. Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society. 2025 Dec 15.
Liu T, Yu W, Huang L, Wu J, Pelowski M. Collaborative online shopping with virtual reality: An explorative investigation using fNIRS-based hyperscanning. Information and Management. 2025 Dec;62(8):104218. doi: 10.1016/j.im.2025.104218
Tie B, Yang W, Huo T, Gao Y, Yang X, Tian D et al. Empathy to Creativity: The Associations Between Empathy and Everyday Creativity. Journal of Personality. 2025 Dec;93(6):1212-1225. doi: 10.1111/jopy.13002
Rondini S, Alvarez-Martin C, Angermair-Barkai P, Penacchio O, Paz M, Pelowski M et al. Stable diffusion models reveal a persisting human and AI gap in visual creativity. 2025 Nov 20.
Zeggio S, Steyrl D, Pelowski M, Krack P, Darweesh SKL, Crone JS et al. Neuropsychological insights into creativity in people with Parkinson's disease. npj Parkinson's Disease. 2025 Nov 19;11(1):324. doi: 10.1038/s41531-025-01165-y
Podolin N, Mikuni J, Arato J. Facilitation or impairment: Social evaluation affects working memory through factors beyond task difficulty. 2025. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/y6xsc_v2
Knoll AL, Mikuni J, Specker E. Looking at people looking at art: observations of art interactions in an everyday urban environment. Frontiers in Psychology. 2025 Sept 8;16:1658946. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1658946
Mendhakar A, Sierak K, Chana K, Leder H. Does the reading platform matter? An eye-tracking study. AILA Review. 2025 Sept 1;38(1):105-128. doi: 10.1075/aila.24033.men
Karkou V, Sacco PL, Pelowski M, Theofanopoulou C, Carr C, Huet V et al. Comment on 'Can arts-based interventions improve health? A conceptual and methodological critique' by Skov and Nadal - A critique of the critique: Towards a more nuanced evaluation of current research on the health outcomes of arts-based interventions. Physics of Life Reviews. 2025 Sept;54:147-151. doi: 10.1016/j.plrev.2025.07.015
Fekete A, Maidhof R, Specker E, Nater UM, Leder H. How Does Art Influence Pain and Stress? Investigating Autonomic and Endocrine Markers of Music, Visual Art, and Multimodal Art Experience. International journal of behavioral medicine. 2025 Aug 5;32(Suppl 1):54-54. 167. doi: 10.1007/s12529-025-10383-w
Dehove M, Mikuni J, Podolin N, Leder H, Oberzaucher E. The Impact of Urban art on Wellbeing: A Laboratory Study. Empirical Studies of the Arts. 2025 Jul;43(2):1240-1268. doi: 10.1177/02762374241298878
Miller S, Cotter KN, Fingerhut J, Leder H, Pelowski M. What Can Happen When We Look at Art? An Exploratory Network Model and Latent Profile Analysis of Affective/Cognitive Aspects Underlying Shared, Supraordinate Responses to Museum Visual Art. Empirical Studies of the Arts. 2025 Jul;43(2):827-876. doi: 10.1177/02762374241292576
Kathofer M, Lamm C, Leder H, Crone JS. Aesthetic experiences across visual perception and mental imagery: Behaviorally indistinguishable, neurally distinct. iScience. 2025 Jun 20;28(6):112588. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112588
Chana K, Mikuni J, Rebora S, Vezzani G, Meyer A, Salgaro M et al. Judging Books by Their Covers: The Impact of Text and Image Features on the Aesthetic Evaluation and Memorability of Italian Novels. Literature. 2025 Jun 7;5(2). doi: 10.3390/literature5020013