My research focuses on foundational and methodological issues in behavioral neuroscience. I am interested in linking the explanatory goals of neuroscience to its experimental methods: how does scientific practice (questions asked, data collected, and the interpretation of scientific data) influence our understanding of animal sentience and behavior?
To answer these questions, I spend time in neuroscience labs – documenting, discussing, and even theorizing alongside scientists.
You can find selected articles, essays and reports here:
Research articles
"What is Natural about Naturalistic Neuroscience?" in press at Biology & Philosophy.
"Model Organisms" with Michael Dietrich, in press at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Reimagining Evolutionary Psychology: Using Helen Longino’s Contextual Empiricism for a Value-Up Approach," in Sarah S. Richardson, Heidi Grasswick, Carla Fehr, and Michael R. Dietrich (Eds.), in press at Subjects, Power, and Knowledge: Critical Perspectives on the Philosophy of Helen Longino. Pittsburgh University Press.
"Rethinking neuroscientific methodology: Lived experience in behavioral studies" (2024). Biological Theory, 19(3), 184-197.
Book reviews
Nemati, N. N., "Neuroscience as Technoscience: The Importance of Materiality in Simplification," in press at Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, Comments on Mazviita Chirimuuta's The Brain Abstracted, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2024.
Nemati, N. N. (2022) "Neuroscience and Philosophy" Eds. Felipe de Brigard and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2022. H-Net Network on science, medicine, and technology.
Nemati, N. N. (2021) "Smellosophy: What the nose tells the mind" by AS Barwich. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 43, 75.
Public scholarship
"Beyond the algorithmic oracle: rethinking machine learning in behavioral neuroscience," (2025) with Matthew Whiteway, The Transmitter.
"Carceral technology and the normalization of psychological torture," (2025) with Dasha Pruss, Open Global Rights. [español]
"Rethinking naturalistic behaviour: The Terzolas manifesto" (2025), with Anna Chrzanowska, Mateusz Kostecki, Natalia Krasilshchikova, Matilde Perrino, Luigi Petrucco, Bendik H Aaby
Works-in-progress
Title redacted. Paper on nonhuman animal behavior; under review.