We humans are innately curious creatures.

Humans exhibit two basic types of curiosity that show up in different parts of the brain during functional MRI scans.

According to astrophysicist Mario Livio, Humans exhibit two basic types of curiosity.

One type has been dubbed "perceptual curiosity," Livio says.

This is what we feel when we see something that surprises or puzzles us or doesn’t match up with something we thought we knew.

“It is felt as a sort of uneasiness, an unpleasant situation, a bit like an itch you need to scratch,” he explains.

A second kind has been dubbed "epistemic curiosity."

This is our love of knowledge, our desire to learn new things.

“Our brain and our mind assigns value to this knowledge, so this is usually experienced as a pleasurable thing, with an anticipation of reward in the form of what we learn,” Livio says.