Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0019
E. Munar, C. Cela-Conde
As discussed in both the original study and the current chapter, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a required neural player in the aesthetic appraisal and a basic stage of the aesthetic experience. As the distinct activation that the authors found in the neuroimaging study occurred when participants rated as beautiful natural, artistic, and decorative stimuli, we concluded that left DLPFC responded to aesthetic qualities in general and not to specific artistic qualities. More recent studies indicate that the function of the LPFC in relation to aesthetics may be to exercise cognitive control to direct attention with a proper aesthetic orientation. Other studies suggest that LPFC is part of a frontal “evaluative” network which supports an analysis of emotional response and personal relevance. Specifically, left DLPFC seems to affect the evaluation of different images, disengaging from a habitual mode of identifying objects in order to adopt an aesthetic perspective.
{"title":"The Role of Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices in Aesthetic Valuation","authors":"E. Munar, C. Cela-Conde","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"As discussed in both the original study and the current chapter, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a required neural player in the aesthetic appraisal and a basic stage of the aesthetic experience. As the distinct activation that the authors found in the neuroimaging study occurred when participants rated as beautiful natural, artistic, and decorative stimuli, we concluded that left DLPFC responded to aesthetic qualities in general and not to specific artistic qualities. More recent studies indicate that the function of the LPFC in relation to aesthetics may be to exercise cognitive control to direct attention with a proper aesthetic orientation. Other studies suggest that LPFC is part of a frontal “evaluative” network which supports an analysis of emotional response and personal relevance. Specifically, left DLPFC seems to affect the evaluation of different images, disengaging from a habitual mode of identifying objects in order to adopt an aesthetic perspective.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115568924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0013
Edward A. Vessel, Xiaomin Yue, I. Biederman
A gradient of µ-opioid receptors extends from early sensory areas of the cerebral cortex to associative cortex, with the greatest density of receptors in the most anterior associative regions. In 2006, Biederman and Vessel proposed that the hedonic value of perceptual and cognitive experience is a function of activation of this gradient. A desire for opioid activity provided by this gradient renders us infovores, always seeking novel but richly interpretable experiences. Richly interpretable experiences engage the opioid-dense anterior regions of the gradient, while novel experiences engage neural ensembles that have yet to undergo adaptation. Support for this proposal derives from the greater activity elicited in opioid-rich parahippocampal cortex for preferred over nonpreferred scenes, with neural network modeling of visual aesthetic responses suggesting that representations in later stages are more predictive of aesthetic responses, and psychopharmacological experiments that support the potential involvement of endogenous opioids.
{"title":"Scene Preferences, Aesthetic Appeal, and Curiosity","authors":"Edward A. Vessel, Xiaomin Yue, I. Biederman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"A gradient of µ-opioid receptors extends from early sensory areas of the cerebral cortex to associative cortex, with the greatest density of receptors in the most anterior associative regions. In 2006, Biederman and Vessel proposed that the hedonic value of perceptual and cognitive experience is a function of activation of this gradient. A desire for opioid activity provided by this gradient renders us infovores, always seeking novel but richly interpretable experiences. Richly interpretable experiences engage the opioid-dense anterior regions of the gradient, while novel experiences engage neural ensembles that have yet to undergo adaptation. Support for this proposal derives from the greater activity elicited in opioid-rich parahippocampal cortex for preferred over nonpreferred scenes, with neural network modeling of visual aesthetic responses suggesting that representations in later stages are more predictive of aesthetic responses, and psychopharmacological experiments that support the potential involvement of endogenous opioids.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114774470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0004
Steven Brown
Aesthetic processing is about what we like and dislike. It applies to all types of perceived objects, not just art works. There should be a general brain network that deals with aesthetic appraisals of like and dislike regardless of the appraised object. In order to investigate this, the authors carried out a large-scale meta-analysis of published neuroimaging studies of aesthetic processing for objects that are perceived using four different sensory pathways: vision, audition, taste, and smell. A part of the brain called the anterior insula appeared as the most concordant area of activation across the four sensory pathways. From an evolutionary standpoint, it most likely that the appreciation of human artifacts like art works piggybacked onto an existing system for the appraisal of objects of biological importance, such as food sources and potential mates.
{"title":"Naturalizing Aesthetics","authors":"Steven Brown","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Aesthetic processing is about what we like and dislike. It applies to all types of perceived objects, not just art works. There should be a general brain network that deals with aesthetic appraisals of like and dislike regardless of the appraised object. In order to investigate this, the authors carried out a large-scale meta-analysis of published neuroimaging studies of aesthetic processing for objects that are perceived using four different sensory pathways: vision, audition, taste, and smell. A part of the brain called the anterior insula appeared as the most concordant area of activation across the four sensory pathways. From an evolutionary standpoint, it most likely that the appreciation of human artifacts like art works piggybacked onto an existing system for the appraisal of objects of biological importance, such as food sources and potential mates.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116534832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0014
T. Pegors
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.
{"title":"Kinds of Beauty and the Prefrontal Cortex","authors":"T. Pegors","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0014","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125087037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0025
N. Osaka
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.
{"title":"Cultural Neuroaesthetics of Delicate Sadness Induced by Noh Masks","authors":"N. Osaka","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0025","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128881128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0011
Franziska Hartung
Why is it often so easy to identify the villain in a movie just by the way they look? Visual narratives exploit a mechanism that generates aversion towards people who look different. Being “different” by definition is in relation to a statistical norm, whether the difference concerns body size, skin color, hair styles, gender, visible physical disabilities, or facial anomalies. We often associate unattractive faces or faces with anomalies with poor character or negative personality traits. The evidence that most people harbor (implicit) biases against others who visibly differ from the norm is overwhelming, while people who approximate a statistical average within a population are regarded as beautiful and morally good. While we do not yet understand the (neuro-)biological and cognitive bases of these stereotypes, some recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that people not only pay greater attention to faces with anomalies but also simultaneously inhibit social and emotional responses.
{"title":"The Mark of Villainy","authors":"Franziska Hartung","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Why is it often so easy to identify the villain in a movie just by the way they look? Visual narratives exploit a mechanism that generates aversion towards people who look different. Being “different” by definition is in relation to a statistical norm, whether the difference concerns body size, skin color, hair styles, gender, visible physical disabilities, or facial anomalies. We often associate unattractive faces or faces with anomalies with poor character or negative personality traits. The evidence that most people harbor (implicit) biases against others who visibly differ from the norm is overwhelming, while people who approximate a statistical average within a population are regarded as beautiful and morally good. While we do not yet understand the (neuro-)biological and cognitive bases of these stereotypes, some recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that people not only pay greater attention to faces with anomalies but also simultaneously inhibit social and emotional responses.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"28 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124438290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0045
Z. Djebbara, K. Gramann
In the article discussed in this chapter, the authors describe a framework of neuroaesthetics for architectural experiences that considers sensory feedback stemming from movement central for the experience of the built environment. As we move through space when experiencing architecture, our sensory impressions change, rendering the body and the brain as nondissociable agents of aesthetic experience. This interaction is described by the term affordance. The authors cast the human experience of the built environment to be predicated on the functional relation between action and perception and developed a neuroscientific experiment on architectural transitions to investigate how the human brain reflects architectural affordances. They found that varying sizes of transitions, reflecting different affordances, impact early perceptual processes, suggesting that our perception is indeed colored by the action potentials afforded by the composed space. In conclusion, the shape of space resonates with our embodied predictions regarding movement.
{"title":"Architectural Affordances","authors":"Z. Djebbara, K. Gramann","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197513620.003.0045","url":null,"abstract":"In the article discussed in this chapter, the authors describe a framework of neuroaesthetics for architectural experiences that considers sensory feedback stemming from movement central for the experience of the built environment. As we move through space when experiencing architecture, our sensory impressions change, rendering the body and the brain as nondissociable agents of aesthetic experience. This interaction is described by the term affordance. The authors cast the human experience of the built environment to be predicated on the functional relation between action and perception and developed a neuroscientific experiment on architectural transitions to investigate how the human brain reflects architectural affordances. They found that varying sizes of transitions, reflecting different affordances, impact early perceptual processes, suggesting that our perception is indeed colored by the action potentials afforded by the composed space. In conclusion, the shape of space resonates with our embodied predictions regarding movement.","PeriodicalId":335128,"journal":{"name":"Brain, Beauty, and Art","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117011037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}