Cultural Neuroaesthetics of Delicate Sadness Induced by Noh Masks

Abstract

As an investigator of how culture interacts with neuroaesthetics in Japanese art, the author’s goal in the article under discussion is to explore the neural mechanisms involved in the social, affective, and cognitive processes of sadness induced by the Noh mask. Why do seemingly negative emotions, such as sadness, play a critical role in aesthetic experiences in the Noh theater? What brain activity is involved in feeling delicate sadness? Sadness induced by faces involves cortical interactions among various brain areas such as the amygdala, striatum, fusiform face area, and insula. The expectation for reward, hidden in the appreciation of the sad mask, might be a social reward. If so, it may be that appreciating sadness masks engages a common system that drives the expectation of negative rewards. The author ran a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants’ brains were scanned while watching sad Noh masks. Results confirmed predictions, revealing activation of the right amygdala while viewing sad masks.