The brain's specialized systems for aesthetic and perceptual judgment

Equation for Attractiveness: Integrating Multidimensional Factors Through Computational Neuroaesthetics

BACKGROUND

Understanding the multifaceted nature of attractiveness (A), which encompasses physical beauty (PB), genuineness (GEN), self-confidence (SC), and prior experience (RE), is crucial for various domains, including psychology and clinical aesthetics. Previous studies have often isolated specific elements, failing to capture their intricate interplay. This study aims to develop a comprehensive equation for attractiveness using computational neuroaesthetics.

METHOD

The study began with a pilot study involving 250 participants (50 experts and 200 laypersons) who prerated 500 facial images on a Likert scale for traits such as physical beauty, genuineness, self-confidence, and perceived prior experience. Following the pilot, the main study recruited 11,780 participants through diverse media channels to rate a new set of 1,000 facial images. Advanced computational techniques, including multiple linear regression and Bayesian hierarchical modelling, were employed to analyse the data and formulate an attractiveness equation.

RESULTS

The analysis identified genuineness as the most significant factor, followed by physical beauty, self-confidence, and prior experience. The proposed equation for attractiveness, refined through Bayesian modelling, is:A = β 0 + ( β 1 · PB + β 2 · GEN + β 3 · SC + β 4 · PE ) + ϵ A = 1.82 + ( 0.34 · PB + 0.44 · GEN + 0.26 · SC + 0.16 · PE ) + ϵ (β0 is the intercept; β1, β2, β3, β4 are the coefficients for each factor; and ϵ is the error term) CONCLUSION: The findings underscore the paramount importance of psychological traits in attractiveness assessments, suggesting a shift from purely physical enhancements to holistic interventions in clinical settings. This model provides a robust framework for understanding attractiveness and has potential applications in psychology, marketing, and AI.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Beauty and Paintings: Aesthetic Experience in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia When Viewing Abstract and Concrete Paintings

We assessed the aesthetic experience of patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) to understand their ability to experience feelings of the sublime and to be moved when viewing paintings. We exposed patients with bvFTD and control participants to concrete and abstract paintings and asked them how moved they were by these paintings and whether the latter were beautiful or ugly. Patients with bvFTD declared being less moved than control participants by both abstract and concrete paintings. No significant differences were observed between abstract and concrete paintings in both patients with bvFTD and control participants. Patients with bvFTD provided fewer "beautiful" and more "ugly" responses than controls for both abstract and concrete paintings. No significant differences in terms of "beautiful" and "ugly" responses were observed between abstract and concrete paintings in both patients with bvFTD and control participants. These findings suggest disturbances in the basic affective experience of patients with bvFTD when they are exposed to paintings, as well as a bias in their ability to judge the aesthetic quality of paintings.

Are neuroaesthetic principles applied in art therapy protocols for neurorehabilitation? A systematic mini-review

Art is an instrument created by humans as an alternative way of expression. For this reason, it has found its use in clinical contexts to improve mood, increase participation in therapy, or improve communication for patients with different pathologies. In this systematic mini-review, the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were adopted. Internet-based bibliographic searches were conducted via major electronic databases (Web of Science and PubMed). We analyzed the quantitative studies in which art figures as a neurorehabilitation treatment to identify whether standard art therapy protocols exist and whether these are based on the principles of neuroaesthetics. Our review identified 8 quantitative and 18 qualitative studies. Although art therapy has been used for more than 20 years as a clinical tool, there are no standard protocols to refer to when planning interventions. Although the effectiveness of using arts as therapy has been reported in many qualitative or feasibility studies, there is still a lack of quantitative studies in which the outcomes of art therapy are directly based on the principles of neuroaesthetics.

Differentiation of claustrum resting-state functional connectivity in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease

The claustrum is a sheet-like of telencephalic gray matter structure whose function is poorly understood. The claustrum is considered a multimodal computing network due to its reciprocal connections with almost all cortical areas as well as subcortical structures. Although the claustrum has been involved in several neurodegenerative diseases, specific changes in connections of the claustrum remain unclear in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Parkinson's disease (PD). Resting-state fMRI and T1-weighted structural 3D images from healthy elderly (n = 15), AD (n = 16), and PD (n = 12) subjects were analyzed. Seed-based FC analysis was performed using CONN FC toolbox and T1-weighted images were analyzed with the Computational Anatomy Toolbox for voxel-based morphometry analysis. While we observed a decreased FC between the left claustrum and sensorimotor cortex, auditory association cortex, and cortical regions associated with social cognition in PD compared with the healthy control group (HC), no significant difference was found in alterations in the FC of both claustrum comparing the HC and AD groups. In the AD group, high FC of claustrum with regions of sensorimotor cortex and cortical regions related to cognitive control, including cingulate gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and insular cortex were demonstrated. In addition, the structural results show significantly decreased volume in bilateral claustrum in AD and PD compared with HC. There were no significant differences in the claustrum volumes between PD and AD groups so the FC may offer more precise findings in distinguishing changes for claustrum in AD and PD.

Bridging the gap between believing and memory functions

Believing has recently been recognized as a fundamental brain function linking a person’s experience with his or her attitude, actions and predictions. In general, believing results from the integration of ambient information with emotions and can be reinforced or modulated in a probabilistic fashion by new experiences. Although these processes occur in the subliminal realm, humans can become aware of what they believe and express it verbally. We explain how believing is interwoven with memory functions in a multifaceted fashion. Linking the typically rapid and adequate reactions of a subject to what he/she believes is enabled by working memory. Perceptions are stored in episodic memory as beneficial or aversive events, while the corresponding verbal descriptions of what somebody believes are stored in semantic memory. After recall from memory of what someone believes, personally relevant information can be communicated to other people. Thus, memory is essential for maintaining what people believe.

The neural determinants of abstract beauty

We have enquired into the neural activity which correlates with the experience of beauty aroused by abstract paintings consisting of arbitrary assemblies of lines and colours. During the brain imaging experiments, subjects rated abstract paintings according to aesthetic appeal. There was low agreement on the aesthetic classification of these paintings among participants. Univariate analyses revealed higher activity with higher declared aesthetic appeal in both the visual areas and the medial frontal cortex. Additionally, representational similarity analysis (RSA) revealed that the experience of beauty correlated with decodable patterns of activity in visual areas. These results are broadly similar to those obtained in previous studies on facial beauty. With abstract art, it was the involvement of visual areas implicated in the processing of lines and colours while with faces it was of visual areas implicated in the processing of faces. Both categories of aesthetic experience correlated with increased activity in medial frontal cortex. We conclude that the sensory areas participate in the selection of stimuli according to aesthetic appeal and that it is the co-operative activity between the sensory areas and the medial frontal cortex that is the basis for the experience of abstract visual beauty. Further, this co-operation is enabled by "experience dependent" functional connections, in the sense that currently the existence and high specificity of these connections can only be demonstrated during certain experiences.

Neural mechanisms underlying the hierarchical construction of perceived aesthetic value

Little is known about how the brain computes the perceived aesthetic value of complex stimuli such as visual art. Here, we used computational methods in combination with functional neuroimaging to provide evidence that the aesthetic value of a visual stimulus is computed in a hierarchical manner via a weighted integration over both low and high level stimulus features contained in early and late visual cortex, extending into parietal and lateral prefrontal cortices. Feature representations in parietal and lateral prefrontal cortex may in turn be utilized to produce an overall aesthetic value in the medial prefrontal cortex. Such brain-wide computations are not only consistent with a feature-based mechanism for value construction, but also resemble computations performed by a deep convolutional neural network. Our findings thus shed light on the existence of a general neurocomputational mechanism for rapidly and flexibly producing value judgements across an array of complex novel stimuli and situations.

Neighborhood Beauty and the Brain in Older Japanese Adults

People have a preference for, and feel better in, beautiful natural environments. However, there are no epidemiological studies on the association between neighborhood beauty and neuroimaging measures. We aimed to determine association between neighborhood beauty and regional brain volume. Participants were 476 community-dwelling older adults from the Neuron to Environmental Impact across Generations (NEIGE) study. Subjective neighborhood beauty was assessed through participants’ perception of beautiful scenery within 1 km of their home. Objective measures of neighborhood indicators (green spaces, blue spaces, and plant diversity) within 1 km of participants’ homes were obtained using a geographic information system. Volumes of brain regions associated with experience of beauty were measured using magnetic resonance imaging. We estimated associations between neighborhood beauty and regional brain volume using linear regression. Of the participants, 42% rated their neighborhoods as very beautiful, and 17% rated them as not at all beautiful. Higher subjective neighborhood beauty was associated with larger bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex and insula volumes (all p for trend < 0.01). Brain volume was not associated with objective neighborhood measures. Subjective neighborhood beauty was associated with brain regions related to rewards and decision making, suggesting that these brain regions underpin the perception of neighborhood beauty.

Your face looks the same as before, only prettier: The facial skin homogeneity effects on face change detection and facial attractiveness perception

Previous studies suggested that (1) facial attractiveness perception can be increased with facial skin homogeneity improving; and (2) human's facial change detection increases along with facial skin homogeneity increases. However, it's unknown whether a face can be perceived prettier than it did before while still being considered as physically the same. It is possible that these two kinds of cognitive-aesthetic processing may have separate mathematical functions in psychophysical studies. In other words, human's facial attractiveness differentiation may be more sensitive than facial change detection. In this current study, we explored the above questions. Using three types of psychophysical techniques to manipulate facial skin homogeneity, we measured how participants' sensitivity to facial skin homogeneity and attractiveness change. Results showed a linear function curve for facial physical change detection and a logarithmic function curve was drawn in the forced-choice technique, which was the most sensitive one, indicating that participants can judge a face prettier than before without being aware of it has physically changed. Besides, two linear function curves were shown in the same/different technique and a rating technique. Taken together, this current study revealed that facial attractiveness can be enhanced and discriminated by improving facial skin homogeneity, without being realized by people with conscious awareness that the face has been changed.

Do we enjoy what we sense and perceive? A dissociation between aesthetic appreciation and basic perception of environmental objects or events

This integrative review rearticulates the notion of human aesthetics by critically appraising the conventional definitions, offerring a new, more comprehensive definition, and identifying the fundamental components associated with it. It intends to advance holistic understanding of the notion by differentiating aesthetic perception from basic perceptual recognition, and by characterizing these concepts from the perspective of information processing in both visual and nonvisual modalities. To this end, we analyze the dissociative nature of information processing in the brain, introducing a novel local-global integrative model that differentiates aesthetic processing from basic perceptual processing. This model builds on the current state of the art in visual aesthetics as well as newer propositions about nonvisual aesthetics. This model comprises two analytic channels: aesthetics-only channel and perception-to-aesthetics channel. The aesthetics-only channel primarily involves restricted local processing for quality or richness (e.g., attractiveness, beauty/prettiness, elegance, sublimeness, catchiness, hedonic value) analysis, whereas the perception-to-aesthetics channel involves global/extended local processing for basic feature analysis, followed by restricted local processing for quality or richness analysis. We contend that aesthetic processing operates independently of basic perceptual processing, but not independently of cognitive processing. We further conjecture that there might be a common faculty, labeled as aesthetic cognition faculty, in the human brain for all sensory aesthetics albeit other parts of the brain can also be activated because of basic sensory processing prior to aesthetic processing, particularly during the operation of the second channel. This generalized model can account not only for simple and pure aesthetic experiences but for partial and complex aesthetic experiences as well.

Human lesions and animal studies link the claustrum to perception, salience, sleep and pain

The claustrum is the most densely interconnected region in the human brain. Despite the accumulating data from clinical and experimental studies, the functional role of the claustrum remains unknown. Here, we systematically review claustrum lesion studies and discuss their functional implications. Claustral lesions are associated with an array of signs and symptoms, including changes in cognitive, perceptual and motor abilities; electrical activity; mental state; and sleep. The wide range of symptoms observed following claustral lesions do not provide compelling evidence to support prominent current theories of claustrum function such as multisensory integration or salience computation. Conversely, the lesions studies support the hypothesis that the claustrum regulates cortical excitability. We argue that the claustrum is connected to, or part of, multiple brain networks that perform both fundamental and higher cognitive functions. As a multifunctional node in numerous networks, this may explain the manifold effects of claustrum damage on brain and behaviour.

More Than Meets the Eye: Art Engages the Social Brain

Here we present the viewpoint that art essentially engages the social brain, by demonstrating how art processing maps onto the social brain connectome-the most comprehensive diagram of the neural dynamics that regulate human social cognition to date. We start with a brief history of the rise of neuroaesthetics as the scientific study of art perception and appreciation, in relation to developments in contemporary art practice and theory during the same period. Building further on a growing awareness of the importance of social context in art production and appreciation, we then set out how art engages the social brain and outline candidate components of the "artistic brain connectome." We explain how our functional model for art as a social brain phenomenon may operate when engaging with artworks. We call for closer collaborations between the burgeoning field of neuroaesthetics and arts professionals, cultural institutions and diverse audiences in order to fully delineate and contextualize this model. Complementary to the unquestionable value of art for art's sake, we argue that its neural grounding in the social brain raises important practical implications for mental health, and the care of people living with dementia and other neurological conditions.

Testing the Reproducibility of the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Failure to Modulate Beauty Perception by Brain Stimulation

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been recognized as a promising tool for investigating the causal relationship between specific brain areas of interest and behavior. However, the reproducibility of previous tDCS studies is often questioned because of failures in replication. This study focused on the effects of tDCS on one cognitive domain: beauty perception. To date, the modulation of beauty perception by tDCS has been shown in two studies: Cattaneo et al. (2014) and Nakamura and Kawabata (2015). Here, we aimed at replicating their studies and investigating the effects of tDCS on beauty perception using the following parameters: (1) cathodal stimulation over the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (Nakamura and Kawabata, 2015); (2) anodal stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) (Cattaneo et al., 2014). We also performed a more focal stimulation targeting the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to determine the optimal stimulation site for modulating beauty perception (3). Participants rated the subjectively-perceived beauty of the images before and after the tDCS administration. We divided images into four clusters according to the obtained scores in our preliminary study and examined changes in beauty ratings in each image cluster separately to exclude factors, such as stimuli attributions that may reduce tDCS effects. The results showed no strong effects of tDCS with the same parameters as in previous studies on beauty rating scores in any image cluster. Likewise, anodal stimulation over the OFC did not result in a change in rating scores. In contrast to previous studies, the current study did not corroborate the effects of tDCS on beauty perception. Our findings provide evidence regarding the recent reproducibility issue of tDCS effects and suggest the possible inflation of its effects on cognitive domains.

The power of external influences to modify judgments of facial and moral beauty

Empirical evidence shows that the often-made positive correlation between human physical and moral beauty is tenuous. In this study, we aimed to learn whether facial and moral beauty can be psychophysically separated. Participants (n = 95) provided beauty and goodness (i.e., trustworthiness) ratings for pictures of faces, after which they were presented with a fictitious peer rating for the same face and asked to re-rate the face. We used the difference between the initial and final ratings to quantify the degree of resistance to external influence. We found that judgments of facial beauty were more resistant to external influence than judgments of facial "goodness"; in addition, there was significantly higher agreement within beauty ratings than within goodness ratings. These findings are discussed in light of our Bayesian-Laplacian classification of priors, from which we conclude that moral beauty relies more upon acquired "artifactual" priors and facial beauty more on inherited biological priors.

Effects of visual attention modulation on dynamic functional connectivity during own-face viewing in body dysmorphic disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by preoccupations with misperceptions of one's physical appearance. Previous neuroimaging studies in BDD have yet to examine dynamic functional connectivity (FC) patterns between brain areas, necessary to capture changes in activity in response to stimuli and task conditions. We used Leading Eigenvector Dynamics Analysis to examine whole-brain dynamic FC from fMRI data during an own-face viewing task in 29 unmedicated adults with BDD with facial concerns and 30 healthy controls. The task involved two parts: (1) unconstrained, naturalistic viewing and (2) holding visual attention in the center of the image, to reduce scanning and fixation on perceived facial flaws. An FC state consisting of bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex regions occurred significantly less often during the visual attention condition and afterward during the unconstrained face viewing in BDD participants, compared to the first unconstrained face viewing, a pattern that differed from controls. Moreover, the probability of this state during the second unconstrained face viewing was associated with severity of obsessions and compulsions and degree of poor insight in BDD, suggesting its clinical significance. These findings have implications for understanding the pathophysiology of own-face viewing in BDD and how it is affected by modification of viewing patterns, which may have implications for novel perceptual retraining treatment designs.

The effect of action observation on aesthetic preference of Chinese calligraphy: An fMRI study

INTRODUCTION

There is some evidence suggesting that movement perception has an effect on aesthetic experience. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the observation of creators' creative action (the process that calligraphers create calligraphy) remain unclear.

METHODS

In this study, participants were scanned with fMRI while performing aesthetic judgments on Chinese calligraphy images with/without action observation.

RESULTS

Behavioral results showed that both the work by the expert and novice with action observation were rated significantly higher on aesthetic preference than those without action observation. Imaging results showed that brain regions associated with perceptual, cognitive, and emotional processing were commonly activated by calligraphy images with/without action observation. However, compared with no action observation, aesthetic judgments of calligraphy images with action observation elicited stronger activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and the bilateral insula. Meanwhile, the superior parietal lobe which is associated with relevant inner action imitation, was also activated when observing the creator's action.

CONCLUSIONS

Brain activation in the superior parietal lobe, anterior cingulate cortex, and the bilateral insula indicated that observing the creative action of the creators contributed to the aesthetic experience of the observer.

Beliefs: A challenge in neuropsychological disorders

INTRODUCTION

Beliefs have recently been defined as the neural product of perception of objects and events in the external world and of an affirmative internal affective state reflecting personal meaning. It is, however, undetermined in which way diseases of the brain affect these integrative processes.

METHODS

Here, the formation and updating of abnormal beliefs in cerebral disorders are described.

RESULTS

It will be shown that well-defined neuropsychological syndromes resulting from brain lesions also interfere with the neural processes that enable the formation, up-dating and communication of beliefs. Similarly, in neuropsychiatric disorders abnormal and delusional beliefs appear to be caused by altered perception and/or misattribution of aversive meaning.

CONCLUSION

Given the importance of beliefs for ordinary social behaviour, abnormal beliefs are a challenge in neuropsychological disorders.

Covid-19 and Mental Health: Could Visual Art Exposure Help?

A worldwidemental health crisis is expected, as millions worldwide fear death and disease while being forced into repeated isolation. Thus, there is a need for new proactive approaches to improve mental resilience and prevent mental health conditions. Since the 1990s, art has emerged as an alternative mental health therapy in the United States and Europe, becoming part of the social care agenda. This article focuses on how visual esthetic experiences can create similar patterns of neuronal activity as those observed when the reward system is activated. The activation of the reward structures could have a stress buffering effect, given the interdependence observed between the reward and stress systems. Therefore, could visual esthetic experiences stimulate mental resilience? And if this were the case, could art-based interventions be offered for mental health in the context of COVID-19 and beyond?

The Cognitive-Emotional Design and Study of Architectural Space: A Scoping Review of Neuroarchitecture and Its Precursor Approaches

Humans respond cognitively and emotionally to the built environment. The modern possibility of recording the neural activity of subjects during exposure to environmental situations, using neuroscientific techniques and virtual reality, provides a promising framework for future design and studies of the built environment. The discipline derived is termed "neuroarchitecture". Given neuroarchitecture's transdisciplinary nature, it progresses needs to be reviewed in a contextualised way, together with its precursor approaches. The present article presents a scoping review, which maps out the broad areas on which the new discipline is based. The limitations, controversies, benefits, impact on the professional sectors involved, and potential of neuroarchitecture and its precursors' approaches are critically addressed.

Discrepancies between explicit and implicit evaluation of aesthetic perception ability in individuals with autism: a potential way to improve social functioning

Background

The capacity to evaluate beauty plays a crucial role in social behaviour and social relationships. It is known that some characteristics of beauty are important social cues that can induce stereotypes or promote different behavioural expectations. Another crucial capacity for success in social interactions is empathy, i.e. the ability to understand and share others’ mental and emotional states. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have an impairment of empathic ability. We showed in a previous study that empathy and aesthetic perception abilities closely related. Indeed, beauty can affect different aspects of empathic behaviour, and empathy can mediate the aesthetic perception in typically developing (TD) individuals. Thus, this study evaluates the ability of aesthetic perception in ASD individuals compared to TD individuals, using the Golden Beauty behavioural task adapted for eye-tracking in order to acquire both explicit and implicit evidences. In both groups, the relationship between empathic and aesthetic perception abilities was also evaluated.

Methods

Ten ASD individuals (age ± SD:20.7 ± 4.64) and ten TD individuals (age ± SD:20.17 ± 0.98) participated in the study. Participants underwent empathy tasks and then the Golden Beauty task. To assess differences in the participants’ performance, we carried out a repeated measures general linear model.

Results

At the explicit level, our behavioural results show an impairment in aesthetic perception ability in ASD individuals. This inability could have relevance for their ability to experience pleasure during social interactions. However, at the implicit level (eye-tracking results), ASD individuals conserved a good ability to feel aesthetic pleasure during the Golden Beauty task, thus indicating a discrepancy between the explicit and implicit evaluation of the beauty task. Finally, beauty perception appears to be linked to empathy when neither of these capacities is compromised, as demonstrated in the TD group. In contrast, this link is missed in ASD individuals.

Conclusion

Overall, our results clearly show that individuals with autism are not completely blind to aesthetic pleasure: in fact, they retain an implicit ability to experience beauty. These findings could pave the way for the development of new protocols to rehabilitate ASD social functioning, exploiting their conserved implicit aesthetic perception.

Seeking the "Beauty Center" in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art

During the past two decades, cognitive neuroscientists have sought to elucidate the common neural basis of the experience of beauty. Still, empirical evidence for such common neural basis of different forms of beauty is not conclusive. To address this question, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on the existing neuroimaging studies of beauty appreciation of faces and visual art by nonexpert adults (49 studies, 982 participants, meta-data are available at https://osf.io/s9xds/ ). We observed that perceiving these two forms of beauty activated distinct brain regions: While the beauty of faces convergently activated the left ventral striatum, the beauty of visual art convergently activated the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC). However, a conjunction analysis failed to reveal any common brain regions for the beauty of visual art and faces. The implications of these results are discussed.

Review of computational neuroaesthetics: bridging the gap between neuroaesthetics and computer science

The mystery of aesthetics attracts scientists from various research fields. The topic of aesthetics, in combination with other disciplines such as neuroscience and computer science, has brought out the burgeoning fields of neuroaesthetics and computational aesthetics within less than two decades. Despite profound findings are carried out by experimental approaches in neuroaesthetics and by machine learning algorithms in computational neuroaesthetics, these two fields cannot be easily combined to benefit from each other and findings from each field are isolated. Computational neuroaesthetics, which inherits computational approaches from computational aesthetics and experimental approaches from neuroaesthetics, seems to be promising to bridge the gap between neuroaesthetics and computational aesthetics. Here, we review theoretical models and neuroimaging findings about brain activity in neuroaesthetics. Then machine learning algorithms and computational models in computational aesthetics are enumerated. Finally, we introduce studies in computational neuroaesthetics which combine computational models with neuroimaging data to analyze brain connectivity during aesthetic appreciation or give a prediction on aesthetic preference. This paper outlines the rich potential for computational neuroaesthetics to take advantages from both neuroaesthetics and computational aesthetics. We conclude by discussing some of the challenges and potential prospects in computational neuroaesthetics, and highlight issues for future consideration.

"Stopping for knowledge": The sense of beauty in the perception-action cycle

According to a millennial-old philosophical debate, aesthetic emotions have been connected to knowledge acquisition. Recent scientific evidence, collected across different disciplinary domains, confirms this link, but also reveals that motor inhibition plays a crucial role in the process. In this review, we discuss multidisciplinary results and propose an original account of aesthetic appreciation (the stopping for knowledge hypothesis) framed within the predictive coding theory. We discuss evidence showing that aesthetic emotions emerge in correspondence with an inhibition of motor behavior (i.e., minimizing action), promoting a simultaneous perceptual processing enhancement, at the level of sensory cortices (i.e., optimizing learning). Accordingly, we suggest that aesthetic appreciation may represent a hedonic feedback over learning progresses, motivating the individual to inhibit motor routines to seek further knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, the neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies we review reveal the presence of a strong association between aesthetic appreciation and the activation of the dopaminergic reward-related circuits. Finally, we propose a number of possible applications of the stopping for knowledge hypothesis in the clinical and education domains.

Does aesthetic judgment on face attractiveness affect neural correlates of empathy for pain? A fNIRS study

Empathy for pain is at the basis of altruistic behaviors and is known to be modulated by variables such as group membership, pleasantness or unpleasantness of situations and social relationships. Also, face attractiveness and aesthetic judgment might play a role when observing a person in painful conditions, by increasing individuals' empathic responsiveness. Indeed, physical attractiveness can modify both the perception of the face itself and its reception in a social context. In the present study, we aimed to assess cortical activity when attention is focused on the aesthetic features of an individual showing painful feelings. Brain activity (optical imaging: functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS), considered in its hemodynamic components (oxygenated [oxy-Hb] and deoxygenated hemoglobin [deoxy-Hb]) was monitored when 22 subjects (M_age = 24.9; SD = 3.6) observed faces (attractive; unattractive) that received painful stimulations (pain; no pain) and were asked to judge the attractiveness and pain condition of the face. Specifically, we targeted the left and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), sensory cortex, and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). Analyses revealed significant lower oxy-Hb levels in left IFG compared to right hemispheric channels when asking participants to rate faces attractiveness independently from the stimulus features. Besides, lower levels of deoxy-Hb were detected in the right TPJ for unattractive faces compared to attractive faces. Overall, present findings highlighted that the formulation of an aesthetic judgment and face attractiveness plays a relevant role in empathic concerns and this seems to be able to overlay painful appraisal.

Belief formation - A driving force for brain evolution

The topic of belief has been neglected in the natural sciences for a long period of time. Recent neuroscience research in non-human primates and humans, however, has shown that beliefs are the neuropsychic product of fundamental brain processes that attribute affective meaning to concrete objects and events, enabling individual goal setting, decision making and maneuvering in the environment. With regard to the involved neural processes they can be categorized as empirical, relational, and conceptual beliefs. Empirical beliefs are about objects and relational beliefs are about events as in tool use and in interactions between subjects that develop below the level of awareness and are up-dated dynamically. Conceptual beliefs are more complex being based on narratives and participation in ritual acts. As neural processes are known to require computational space in the brain, the formation of inceasingly complex beliefs demands extra neural resources. Here, we argue that the evolution of human beliefs is related to the phylogenetic enlargement of the brain including the parietal and medial frontal cortex in humans.

Questions for The Psychology of the Artful Mind

This paper reconstructs the “Arnheim’s puzzle” over the psychology of art. It is argued that the long-established psychological theories of art do not account properly for the observable variability of art, which provide the phenomena of interest whose psychological factors need to be discovered. The general purpose principles of such theories, the ensuing selective sample of art phenomena, and assumption of conventional properties of aesthetic experience make the predictions and the findings of the theories unrepresentative of art. From the discussion of examples drawn from contemporary visual arts and the presentation of the debate on the emergence of the cognitive capacities of art in paleoanthropology, a construct is presented on the specificity of the cognitive capacities of art and its anchoring to perception, which solves the puzzle and has implications for research and teaching psychology of art.

Kandinsky or Me? How Free Is the Eye of the Beholder in Abstract Art?

We investigated in "art-naïve" German and Chinese participants the perception of color and spatial balance in abstract art. For color perception, we asked participants (a) to adjust the color of a single element in 24 paintings according to their liking and (b) to indicate whether they preferred their version of the painting or the original. For spatial perception, we asked participants (a) to determine the "balance point" of an artwork and (b) to indicate their preferences for the original or left-right reversed orientation of previously seen and unfamiliar paintings. Results of the color experiments suggest that, even though the interactive task was of a rather open-ended nature, observers' color adjustments were not random but systematically influenced by each painting's color palette. Overall, participants liked their own color choices about as much as the original composition. Results of the spatial experiments reveal a remarkable consistency between participants in their balance point settings. The perceived lateral position of the balance point systematically affected the left-right orientation preference for a given painting. We conclude that "art-naïve" observers are sensitive to the composition of colors and spatial structures in abstract art and are influenced by their cultural backgrounds when experiencing abstract paintings.

Neural correlates of appreciating natural landscape and landscape garden: Evidence from an fMRI study

INTRODUCTION

Rambling natural landscapes or landscape gardens may invoke positive emotions. However, the manner in which people experience landscape gardens and the cortical differences in the appreciation of the naturalness and artificiality of landscapes remain unknown.

METHODS

This study scanned participants with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed photographs of natural landscapes and landscape gardens and performed scene type judgment task.

RESULTS

As predicted, we identified brain regions that were associated with perceptual process, cognitive process, and rewarding experience when appreciating natural landscapes and landscape gardens without color preference. Meanwhile, the contrast between the appreciation of landscape gardens and natural landscapes was characterized by stronger activations of the inferior occipital lobe, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL), the right fusiform gyrus, the right cuneus, and the right hippocampus.

CONCLUSIONS

Responses in these regions indicate that the appreciation of landscape gardens and natural landscapes relies on common cortical regions, and suggest the possibility that the inferior occipital lobe, the SPL, the fusiform gyrus, and the cuneus may be specifically associated with the appreciation of landscape gardens.

The signature featureTM : A new concept in beauty

Signature Feature^TM (SF) is a universal, yet highly personalized treatment approach to aesthetic facial enhancement that applies to all patients, independent of age, gender, or ethnicity. Its philosophical basis maintains that a patient's beauty is anchored by their most distinctive invariant features (invariant features like eyes, nose, cheekbones, or jawline), and preservation of such signature features should be an essential consideration in any aesthetic treatment plan. The principles central to the SF concept include: (a) identifying the patient's most distinctive signature feature, (b) matching the patient's persona to their signature feature while preserving alignment with their cultural/ethnic aesthetic, and (c) highlighting the patient's signature feature by increasing the "signal-to-noise" ratio between the strength of the signature feature and those factors that may be interfering with it (lines, wrinkles, and sun damage). Every patient represents a new combination of treatment challenges which are not only related to the patient's physical baseline characteristics but also by their subjective self-perceptions. This subjective gray area is where the SF treatment approach has the greatest contribution to the patient's positive self-perception and self-esteem, as the practitioner can help the patient realize their own personal brand through enhancement of their signature feature using an array of aesthetic options.

The processing of color preference in the brain

Decades of research has established that humans have preferences for some colors (e.g., blue) and a dislike of others (e.g., dark chartreuse), with preference varying systematically with variation in hue (e.g., Hurlbert and Owen, 2015). Here, we used functional MRI to investigate why humans have likes and dislikes for simple patches of color, and to understand the neural basis of preference, aesthetics and value judgements more generally. We looked for correlations of a behavioural measure of color preference with the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response when participants performed an irrelevant orientation judgement task on colored squares. A whole brain analysis found a significant correlation between BOLD activity and color preference in the posterior midline cortex (PMC), centred on the precuneus but extending into the adjacent posterior cingulate and cuneus. These results demonstrate that brain activity is modulated by color preference, even when such preferences are irrelevant to the ongoing task the participants are engaged. They also suggest that color preferences automatically influence our processing of the visual world. Interestingly, the effect in the PMC overlaps with regions identified in neuroimaging studies of preference and value judgements of other types of stimuli. Therefore, our findings extends this literature to show that the PMC is related to automatic encoding of subjective value even for basic visual features such as color.

Emotional Responses to Visual Art and Commercial Stimuli: Implications for Creativity and Aesthetics

There is an ongoing debate about whether emotional responses to artworks are similar to those produced by the commercial stimuli experienced in everyday life. In this study, we evaluated the emotional responses to the visual art and commercial stimuli by using electroencephalography (EEG) to obtain an objective measure of emotional responses of the brain, namely the frontal alpha asymmetry. Positive frontal alpha asymmetry suggests positive emotional responses, and vice versa. The visual art stimuli consisted of 80 artistic and naturally colored paintings whereas the commercial stimuli consisted of 80 different window displays of fashion collections. The results revealed that positive frontal alpha asymmetry was elicited when the participants judged the visual art stimuli as either beautiful or not beautiful. For the commercial stimuli, positive frontal alpha asymmetry was observed when they were considered as beautiful, whereas negative frontal alpha asymmetry was exhibited toward those perceived as not beautiful. These findings suggest more positive emotional responses to the visual art stimuli, regardless of their aesthetics. However, favorable emotional responses were only elicited toward the commercial stimuli regarded as beautiful. The implications for the creative and aesthetic design of the commercial stimuli in Chinese society in influencing consumers’ emotional responses are discussed.

Museum Moving to Inpatients: Le Louvre à l'Hôpital

Anxiety and depressive symptoms are common in hospitalized patients. Arts and cultural programs were reported to enhance their quality of life. The Le Louvre à l’hôpital study presents a new approach in which the museum moves to the hospital by displaying and discussing artworks with patients interactively. Over one year, four large statues were disposed in the hospital gardens, 30 reprints of large painting were exhibited in the hospital hall, dining rooms, and circulations areas. A total of 83 small-group guided art discussions (90 min) were organized, which 451 patients attended. The 200 small-size reproductions of paintings placed in the patients’ rooms were chosen based on their individual preferences. Decreased anxiety after the art sessions was reported by 160 of 201 patients (79.6%). Out of 451 patients, 406 (90%) said the art program had met their expectations, and 372 (82.4%) wished to continue the experience with caregivers (162 paramedics trained for art activity during 66 workshops). In conclusion, moving the museum to the hospital constitutes a valuable way to provide art activities for inpatients in large numbers, which may reduce hospital-related anxiety in many instances.

Trait Appreciation of Beauty: A Story of Love, Transcendence, and Inquiry

This review of the trait of appreciation of beauty (AoB) draws from the literature in personality psychology, philosophy, religion, neuroscience, neuro-aesthetics, evolutionary psychology, and the psychology of morality. We demonstrate that AoB can be mapped onto a definition of appreciation that includes perceptual, cognitive, emotional, trait, virtue, and valuing elements. A classic component of defining beauty, unity-in-diversity, is described based on the works of a variety of major philosophers. We next describe that there are at least four channels of appreciation of beauty: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, and beautiful ideas. Examining the neuro-aesthetics research indicates that many networks of the brain are involved in mental acts of appreciating beauty, but the medial orbital front cortex (mOFC) is implicated across all four channels of beauty. We then explain how the trait of AoB is a member of three different families of traits: traits of love, traits of transcendence, and traits of inquiry. Next we briefly explain why Kant may have been more correct than Hegel concerning beauty and the good soul. We then present evidence that women may appreciate beauty somewhat more than men. Data from many cultures and nations consistently indicate this. After that we claim AoB leads to individual and collective flourishing. We examine and summarize studies that indicate appreciation of natural beauty leads to a wide variety of positive outcomes; we focus on the importance of open-mindedness that accompanies engagement with artistic beauty; and we summarize studies regarding the moral emotion of elevation and appreciation of moral beauty. Suggested future directions for research are embedded in each subsection of the paper.

The Experience of Beauty of Chinese Poetry and Its Neural Substrates

Chinese poetry has a long history and high esthetic value. People who engage esthetically with Chinese poetry would feel the sense of beauty naturally. However, there is little information regarding what happens in the brain when an individual appreciates Chinese poetry, and how the brain processes the subject’s appreciation of beauty. Herein, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural substrates of experiencing beauty by appreciating Chinese poetry. The participants in our study were 28 college students and the stimuli consisted of 25 Chinese poetry and 25 prose selections. Based on an event-related paradigm, the findings of this study suggested that different areas scattered in both the left and right cerebral hemispheres are activated when an individual appreciates Chinese poetry. Compared to reading prose, appreciating Chinese poetry heightens the activation of the left inferior orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the bilateral insula, the left fusiform, the left supplementary motor area (SMA), and the left precentral gyrus. In these areas, the left inferior OFC and the bilateral insula are considered closely related to experiencing beauty of Chinese poetry, which have been demonstrated that it is an important neural basis of esthetic beauty when using other types of materials. The findings of this study shed new light on the complex but ordinary processes of experiencing beauty when appreciating Chinese poetry and show that some key processes underlying the feeling of esthetic beauty are shared across different esthetic domains.

Neuropsychopharmacological aesthetics: A theoretical consideration of pharmacological approaches to causative brain study in aesthetics and art

Recent developments in neuroaesthetics have heightened the need for causative approaches to more deeply understand the mechanism underlying perception, emotion, and aesthetic experiences. This has recently been the topic for empirical work, employing several causative methods for changing brain activity, as well as comparative assessments of individuals with brain damage or disease. However, one area of study with high potential, and indeed a long history of often nonscientific use in the area of aesthetics and art, employing psychopharmacological chemicals as means of changing brain function, has not been systematically utilized. This chapter reviews the literature on this topic, analyzing neuroendocrinological (neurochemical) approaches and mechanisms that might be used to causatively study the aesthetic brain. We focus on four relevant neuromodulatory systems potentially related to aesthetic experience: the dopaminergic, serotonergic, cannabinoid, and the opioidergic system. We build a bridge to psychopharmacological methods and review drug-induced behavioral and neurobiological consequences. We conclude with a discussion of hypotheses and suggestions for future research.

Behavioral and autonomic responses to real and digital reproductions of works of art

Nowadays, works of art can be enjoyed in both their original and reproduced format. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the format of a work of art could influence physiological and cognitive responses in beholders. Two abstract works of art and their digital reproductions were selected as experimental stimuli and displayed for 2min to 60 participants in a museum. HRV, HR, and RMSSD were recorded, while participants observed the works of art. Subsequently, participants provided behavioral ratings of color intensity, emotional intensity, aesthetic evaluation, perceived movement, and desire to touch the works of art. Results demonstrated that the faithful high-quality digital reproduction of works of art could be as arousing as the original works of art, but at the same time, they cannot replace the experience of standing in front of an authentic work of art in terms of explicit hedonic attributed values. Furthermore, specific interactions between individual inclinations to identify with fictional characters and acquired art competences in the context of aesthetic experience were found.

Speed-related activation in the mesolimbic dopamine system during the observation of driver-view videos

Despite the ubiquity and importance of speeding offenses, there has been little neuroscience research regarding the propensity for speeding among vehicle drivers. In the current study, as a first attempt, we examined the hypothesis that visual inputs during high-speed driving would activate the mesolimbic dopaminergic system that plays an important role in mediating motivational craving. To this end, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify speed-related activation changes in mesolimbic dopaminergic regions during the observation of driver-view videos in two groups that differed in self-reported speeding propensity. Results revealed, as we expected, greater activation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in response to driver-view videos with higher speed. Contrary to our expectation, however, we found no significant between-group difference in speed-related activation changes in mesolimbic dopaminergic regions. Instead, an exploratory psychophysiological interaction analysis found that self-reported speeding propensity was associated with speed-related functional coupling between the VTA and the right intraparietal sulcus. Further validation of our hypothesis will require future studies examining associations between speed-related activation in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and individual differences in speeding propensity, using a more reliable measure of actual speeding propensity in real traffic.