Evaluating Aesthetic Experience through Personal-Appearance Styles: A Behavioral and Electrophysiological Study

Abstract

Consumers' aesthetic experience has often been linked with the concept of beauty, which is regarded as subjective and may vary between individuals, cultures and places, and across time. With the advent of brain-imaging techniques, there is more and more evidence to suggest that aesthetic experience lies not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the brain of the beholder. However, there are gaps in the previous research in this area, as several significant issues have not yet been addressed. Specifically, it is unclear whether the human brain really pays more attention and generates more positive emotional responses to beautiful things. To explore the brain activity relating to consumers' aesthetic experiences, 15 participants were recruited voluntarily to view a series of personal-appearance styles. They were invited to make aesthetic judgments while their brain activity was recorded by electroencephalography. Two electroencephalographic (EEG) indicators, theta coherence and frontal alpha symmetry, were utilized. Theta coherence is a measure of linear synchronization between signals at two electrode sites. It reflects the degree of functional cooperation between the underlying neuronal substrates and was used to explore the attentional processing involved in aesthetic judgments. Frontal alpha asymmetry is derived by subtracting the log-transformed absolute alpha power of the left hemisphere from the analogous log-transformed alpha power of the right hemisphere. It was used as an indicator of emotional response. During aesthetic judgments, long-range theta coherence increased in both hemispheres and more positive frontal alpha asymmetry was found when the styles were judged to be beautiful. Therefore, participants demonstrated brain activity suggestive of central executive processing and more positive emotional responses when they considered styles to be beautiful. The study provides some insight into the brain activity associated with consumers' aesthetic experiences, and suggests new directions for exploring consumer behavior from the perspective of neuroscience.

Music training is associated with cortical synchronization reflected in EEG coherence during verbal memory encoding

“…Theta coherence values for possible electrode pairs were further averaged and categorized as follows: (i) short-range intrahemispheric coherence (between adjacent electrode pairs, F1–F3, C3–C5, P5–P7 (left) versus F2–F4, C4–C6, P6–P8 (right)); or (ii) long-range intrahemispheric coherence (separated by at least one electrode, F1–C1, C3–P3, F5–P5 (left) versus F2–C2, C4–P4, F6–P6 (right)). Interhemispheric coherence was separately measured at the electrode sites over the following scalp regions: (i) frontal (Fp1–Fp2, AF3–AF4, F1–F2, F3–F4, F5–F6, F7–F8), (ii) central (FC1–FC2, FC3–FC4, FC5–FC6, C1–C2, C3–C4, C5–C6, CP1–CP2, CP3–CP4, CP5–CP6), (iii) temporal (FT7–FT8, T3–T4, TP7–TP8), and (iv) parietal/occipital (P1–P2, P3–P4, P5–P6, P7–P8, PO3–PO4, PO5–PO6, PO7–PO8, O1–O2) [ 79 – 81 ].…”

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

“…It was also suggested, therefore, that aesthetic experiences with beautiful stimuli, regardless of whether these are artistic or commercial stimuli, involve a delayed dynamic and functionally integrated brain network, requiring a longer reaction time to make a judgment compared with that induced by stimuli that are not beautiful. In our previous study (Cheung et al, 2014), we demonstrated brain activities suggestive of an integrative process involved in attention with central executive processing, and more positive emotional responses when the personal-appearance styles were judged to be beautiful. In addition, aesthetic judgment engaged a delayed synchronized brain network, involving long-range coherence between the frontal and parietal regions in both hemispheres, and coherence between the two hemispheres in the frontal and central regions.…”

Electroencephalographic study showing that tactile stimulation by fabrics of different qualities elicit graded event‐related potentials

“…It is noteworthy that in use, fabrics in most cases contact the hairy skin of the human body, rather than the glabrous skin, which leads to the conclusion that for the evaluation of emotional perception of fabric touch, it is better to use hairy skin. Cheung et al conducted a behavioural and electrophysiological study to investigate the brain activity of test subjects to visual aesthetic stimuli of fashion items . They were able to record a more positive frontal alpha‐asymmetry when the fashion styles were judged to be beautiful.…”

“…The emotional valence is differentiated between the approach‐avoidance motivational brain activity using the alpha‐asymmetry EEG signal. It was evaluated in order to prove whether one of the tested fabrics is associated with more positive emotions than the others by measuring the hemispheric asymmetry in the frontal electroencephalographic activity where a lateralization to the left hemisphere indicates approach and right‐sided asymmetry avoidance . The vigilance of the subjects towards the tactile stimuli was typically analysed via the alpha activity of the brain using the central‐parietal‐occipital electrodes of the 64 channels EEG.…”