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?" (2026) Biology & Philosophy, 41, 10.
"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., (2026) "Neuroscience as Technoscience: The Importance of Materiality in Simplification,"Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, Vol. 7; 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; R&R.