Kinds of Beauty and the Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract

Much research has been done to show where in the brain there is similar activity for different kinds of beauty judgments. In the article under discussion, the authors set out to determine where in the brain unique information about different kinds of beauty is found. In their experiment, participants made beauty judgments of faces and landscapes while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By using an analysis technique that focused on patterns of activity rather than overall activation, the authors showed that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) contained unique information about each type of beauty. Understanding more about the neuroscience of how modern people evaluate beauty may help uncover larger truths about the history of human culture and art.