Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

Abstract

Neurocomputational models of cognition have framed aesthetic appreciation within the domain of knowledge acquisition and learning, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation might be considered as a hedonic feedback on successful perceptual learning dynamics. Such hypothesis, however, has never been empirically demonstrated yet. In order to investigate the relationship between aesthetic appreciation and learning, we measured the EEG mismatch negativity (MMN) response to more or less appreciated musical intervals, which is considered as a reliable index of perceptual learning. To this end, we measured the MMN to frequency (Hz) standard and frequency deviant musical intervals (Experiment 1) while participants were asked to judge their beauty. For each single stimulus, we also computed an information-theoretic index of perceptual learning (Bayesian surprise). We found that more appreciated musical intervals were associated with a larger MMN responses, which, in turn, correlated with trial-by-trial fluctuations in Bayesian surprise (Experiment 1). Coherently with previous results, Bayesian surprise was also found to correlate with slower RTs in a detection task of the same stimuli, evidencing that motor behavior is inhibited in presence of surprising sensory states triggering perceptual learning (Experiment 2). Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive correlation between aesthetic appreciation and EEG indexes of perceptual learning. We argue that the sense of beauty might have evolved to signal the nervous system new sensory knowledge acquisition and motivate the individual to search for informationally profitable stimuli.

The role of affect in late perceptual processes: Evidence from bi-stable illusions, object identification, and mental rotation.

“…In the study by Jepma et al, presentation of ambiguous figures led to activation of brain areas related to curiosity; later disambiguation led to activation in areas related to reward. A recent line of research in this tradition showed that aesthetic perception is related to Bayesian surprise, suggesting that positive affect accompanying perceptual learning may be a signal of learning success and optimization (Sarasso et al, 2022). A recent theory of aesthetic appreciation, embedded in the predictive coding framework, considers positive affect as a reward that follows the reduction of prediction errors (Sarasso et al, 2020).…”

Beauty and Uncertainty as Transformative Factors: A Free Energy Principle Account of Aesthetic Diagnosis and Intervention in Gestalt Psychotherapy

“…The MMN captures the magnitude of the update of the predictive representation of upcoming stimuli ( Lieder et al, 2013 ). Interestingly, in the same study ( Sarasso et al, 2021a ) we found that trial-by-trial MMN responses to more appreciated chords were more strongly related to Bayesian Surprise, an information-theoretic index quantifying the magnitude of the update of Bayesian beliefs following each sound. This means that during aesthetic appreciation our brain is more attuned with sensory surprise and that surprising stimuli trigger greater updates of mental representation encoded in the neural hierarchy.…”

“…In a series of experiments ( Sarasso et al, 2021a , b ) we found that widely acknowledged electrophysiological indexes of implicit perceptual learning of sensory regularities, such as the mismatch negativity (MMN), were enhanced for subjectively more appreciated musical chords. The MMN negativity is a differential wave obtained by subtracting EEG responses to standard events to those elicited by deviant events.…”

“…Therefore, similarly to any costly, effortful, and risky exploratory behaviour, also attending and tolerating sensory uncertainty is rewarded by an intrinsically generated hedonic feedback ( FitzGibbon et al, 2020 ). Moreover, as any reward, the expectation of self-generated aesthetic pleasure might motivate the paradoxical search for sensory uncertainty ( Sarasso et al, 2020a , 2021a , c ). We suggest that aesthetic pleasure allows toleration of attentionally up-weighted proto-feelings.…”

Repeating patterns: Predictive processing suggests an aesthetic learning role of the basal ganglia in repetitive stereotyped behaviors

“…This kind of engagement thereby allows the exploration of the whole spectrum of external and internal signals (see Figure 2 ), enabling normalization of either data-weighted or prior-weighted behavior. Aesthetic learning might provide such amplification reaching to the endpoints and pulling behavioral patterns into accurate behavior ( Sarasso et al, 2021 ), by creating conducive environments and learning contexts for action and experience ( Wickman, 2012 ). It uniquely bridges external events and artifacts with inner feelings and therefore may help to align external realities with internal generative models.…”