Dissociating embodiment and emotional reactivity in motor responses to artworks

Finisguerra, Alessandra; Ticini, Luca Francesco; Kirsch, Louise P.; Cross, Emily S.; Kotz, Sonja A.; Urgesi, Cosimo

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104663

“…Of fundamental importance for the concept of aesthetic empathy is the shift in perspective, from the perceiver to the artwork, and that this new perspective evokes affective-qualitative reactions (Ganczarek, Hünefeldt, & Olivetti Belardinelli, 2018), which might be due to automatic body responses (e.g., Finisguerra et al, 2021; Freedberg, 2017) or rather to a voluntary cognitive act of the mind. Hence, even though the perceiver is bodily, cognitively, and emotionally moved by the artwork, she recognizes that the artwork depicts a (bodily) form or an (emotional) content, which is distinct from her own, and, therefore, might even cause unfamiliar or novel reactions (Brinck, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relations of Empathy and Gender to Aesthetic Response and Aesthetic Inference of Visual Artworks

Miller

¹

,

Hübner

²

2022

Empirical Studies of the Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The relation between empathy and aesthetic experience has been stated early in empirical aesthetics. Aesthetic empathy means the ability to take the perspective of an artwork´s depicted content or form. Nowadays, empathy defines the ability to infer other persons´ mental states and feelings. In this study, we investigated the relationship between empathy and aesthetic response and aesthetic inference abilities. Subjects judged twenty-four visual artworks on an affective, a cognitive, and a beauty dimension, in a Self- and Other-assessment. We analyzed these data in relation to self-judged empathy on four dimensions: emotional and cognitive empathy in fictitious and in real-world situations. Additionally, we considered gender differences in empathy and aesthetic response. Results show (gender-specific) correlations between empathy and aesthetic response and aesthetic inference abilities. This supports the assumption that empathy assists to adopt the perspective of visual artworks as well as to infer the aesthetic preferences of other people.

show abstract

“…The fMRI results revealed that when the same experimental material was used but varying task demands were systematically considered, the distinct nervous systems of morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment emerge with more clarity. Specifically, direct contrasts showed specific activations for morality judgment; these were mainly located in the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex, including the bilateral SMA, IPL/SPL, MFG/pars opercularis of IFG extending onto the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), and IOG/MOG: i.e., brain regions which have been previously reported for motor representations of behavior during understanding others` behaviors 38 , 39 . These areas are only sensitive to goodness and badness, but not to beauty and ugliness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Neural underpinnings of morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment

Cheng

¹

,

Yang

²

,

Ye

³

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Morality judgment usually refers to the evaluation of moral behavior`s ability to affect others` interests and welfare, while moral aesthetic judgment often implies the appraisal of moral behavior's capability to provide aesthetic pleasure. Both are based on the behavioral understanding. To our knowledge, no study has directly compared the brain activity of these two types of judgments. The present study recorded and analyzed brain activity involved in the morality and moral aesthetic judgments to reveal whether these two types of judgments differ in their neural underpinnings. Results reveled that morality judgment activated the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex previously reported for motor representations of behavior. Evaluation of goodness and badness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. In contrast, moral aesthetic judgment elicited specific activations in the frontal, parietal and temporal cortex proved to be involved in the behavioral intentions and emotions. Evaluation of beauty and ugliness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. Our findings indicate that morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment recruit different cortical networks that might decode others' behaviors at different levels. These results contribute to further understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality judgment and aesthetic judgment.

show abstract

“…The fMRI results revealed that when the same experimental material was used, but varying task demands were systematically considered, the distinct nervous systems of morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment emerge with more clarity. Speci cally, direct contrasts showed speci c activations for morality judgment; these were mainly located in the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex, including the bilateral SMA, IPL/SPL, MFG/pars opercularis of IFG extending onto the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), and IOG/MOG: i.e., brain regions which have been previously reported for motor representations of behavior during understanding others` behaviors (Finisguerra et al, 2021;Heleven & Van Overwalle, 2018). These areas are only sensitive to goodness and badness, but not to beauty and ugliness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Neural Underpinnings of Morality Judgment and Moral Aesthetic Judgment

Cheng

¹

,

Xue

²

,

Liu

³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Morality judgment usually refers to the evaluation of moral behavior`s ability to affect others` interests and welfare, while moral aesthetic judgment often implies the appraisal of moral behavior's capability to provide aesthetic pleasure. Both are based on the behavioral understanding. To our knowledge, no study has directly compared the brain activity of these two types of judgments. The present study recorded and analyzed brain activity involved in the morality and moral aesthetic judgments to reveal whether these two types of judgments differ in their neural underpinnings. Results reveled that morality judgment activated the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex previously reported for motor representations of behavior. Evaluation of goodness and badness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. In contrast, moral aesthetic judgment elicited specific activations in the frontal, parietal and temporal cortex proved to be involved in the behavioral intentions and emotions. Evaluation of beauty and ugliness showed similar patterns of activation in these brain regions. Our findings indicate that morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment recruit different cortical networks that might decode others' behaviors at different levels. These results contribute to further understanding of the essence of the relationship between morality judgment and aesthetic judgment.

show abstract

Dissociating embodiment and emotional reactivity in motor responses to artworks

Cited by 14 publications

References 84 publications

The Relations of Empathy and Gender to Aesthetic Response and Aesthetic Inference of Visual Artworks

The Relations of Empathy and Gender to Aesthetic Response and Aesthetic Inference of Visual Artworks

Neural underpinnings of morality judgment and moral aesthetic judgment

Neural Underpinnings of Morality Judgment and Moral Aesthetic Judgment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About