Where does brain neural activation in aesthetic responses to visual art occur? Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies

Boccia, Maddalena; Barbetti, Sonia; Piccardi, Laura; Guariglia, Cecilia; Ferlazzo, Fabio; Giannini, Anna Maria; Zaidel, Dahlia W.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.09.009

Cited by 88 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Importantly, the outcome of the current study may have direct consequences for linking cognitive models of esthetic experience with current neuroimaging data (Cela-Conde et al, 2013; Chatterjee and Vartanian, 2014; Leder et al, 2015). In the last decade, neuroimaging studies on the appreciation of visual art have suggested that, rather than a single brain area, there is a complex neural system that underlies esthetic experiences (Nadal, 2013; Cela-Conde and Ayala, 2014; Vartanian and Skov, 2014; Boccia et al, 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

Marin

Lampatz

Wandl

et al. 2016

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all rs > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all rs > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty (rs = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness (rs = -0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all rs > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative (rs = -0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive (rs = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne’s theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

Marin

Lampatz

Wandl

et al. 2016

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If sensory immersion and arousal play a role in aesthetic perception, then the expected outcome is precisely that we should attest a positive correlation between aesthetic preference and the activation of the various brain areas involved in the processing of the stimuli. This prediction was also confirmed in a meta-analysis, likewise reporting an association between visual aesthetic experience and a wide-spread rather than localized brain activation (Boccia et al, 2016). In the case of music, the prediction is that the removal of relevant features, whether spatial, emotional, or spectral, should lead into a marked decrease both in the brain activation and in the aesthetic judgment.…”

Section: Sensory Aesthetics As Immersion and Arousalmentioning

confidence: 59%

Global Sensory Qualities and Aesthetic Experience in Music

Brattico

Vuust

2017

Front. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A well-known tradition in the study of visual aesthetics holds that the experience of visual beauty is grounded in global computational or statistical properties of the stimulus, for example, scale-invariant Fourier spectrum or self-similarity. Some approaches rely on neural mechanisms, such as efficient computation, processing fluency, or the responsiveness of the cells in the primary visual cortex. These proposals are united by the fact that the contributing factors are hypothesized to be global (i.e., they concern the percept as a whole), formal or non-conceptual (i.e., they concern form instead of content), computational and/or statistical, and based on relatively low-level sensory properties. Here we consider that the study of aesthetic responses to music could benefit from the same approach. Thus, along with local features such as pitch, tuning, consonance/dissonance, harmony, timbre, or beat, also global sonic properties could be viewed as contributing toward creating an aesthetic musical experience. Several such properties are discussed and their neural implementation is reviewed in the light of recent advances in neuroaesthetics.

show abstract

“…Finally, emotional systems mainly located in the frontal cortex and partially belonging to the so-called Default Mode Network (DMN; [5]) may be involved in VAE, especially when individuals explicitly focus on emotions raised from watching works of arts, such as horror, disgust, and so on [6]. In the past decade, several studies assessing the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience, especially by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy participants ([7,8] for review and meta-analysis), found evidence that strongly supports this model of VAE. Indeed, VAE has been found to rely on a wide network of brain areas consisting of sensory systems [6] and attributional areas of the ventral visual stream [6,7,9], differently engaged as a function of the content of the artwork [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past decade, several studies assessing the neural underpinnings of aesthetic experience, especially by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy participants ([7,8] for review and meta-analysis), found evidence that strongly supports this model of VAE. Indeed, VAE has been found to rely on a wide network of brain areas consisting of sensory systems [6] and attributional areas of the ventral visual stream [6,7,9], differently engaged as a function of the content of the artwork [7]. Within this network, aesthetic preference (e.g., positive or negative aesthetic judgment or the degree of experiences attractiveness) is also processed [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite effects of unilateral brain damage and the neuropsychological deficits on established visual artists that have been widely described in literature [16,24], little is known about whether or not and how a lesion in the above mentioned neural network of areas (see [7] for review and meta-analysis) affects the VAE in the beholders. One previous noteworthy study has assessed neural correlates of the assessment of art attributes (i.e., both conceptual and perceptual attributes) in right brain damaged patients using Voxel Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) [25] finding that damage of the right hemisphere due to stroke impaired the assessment of the conceptual (i.e., abstractness, accuracy) and perceptual attributes of the artworks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neuropsychology of Aesthetic Judgment of Ambiguous and Non-Ambiguous Artworks

Boccia

Barbetti

Piccardi

et al. 2017

Behavioral Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several affective and cognitive processes have been found to be pivotal in affecting aesthetic experience of artworks and both neuropsychological as well as psychiatric symptoms have been found to affect artistic production. However, there is a paucity of studies directly investigating effects of brain lesions on aesthetic judgment. Here, we assessed the effects of unilateral brain damage on aesthetic judgment of artworks showing part/whole ambiguity. We asked 19 unilaterally brain-damaged patients (10 left and 9 right brain damaged patients, respectively LBDP and RBDP) and 20 age- and education-matched healthy individuals (controls, C) to rate 10 Arcimboldo’s ambiguous portraits (AP), 10 realistic Renaissance portraits (RP), 10 still life paintings (SL), and 10 Arcimboldo’s modified portraits where only objects/parts are detectable (AO). They were also administered a Navon task, a facial recognition test, and evaluated on visuo-perceptual and visuo-constructional abilities. Patients included in the study did not show any deficits that could affect the capability to explore and enjoy artworks. SL and RP was not affected by brain damage regardless of its laterality. On the other hand, we found that RBDP liked AP more than the C participants. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between aesthetic judgment of AP and visuo-perceptual skills even if the single case analyses failed to find a systematic association between neuropsychological deficits and aesthetic judgment of AP. On the whole, the present data suggest that a right hemisphere lesion may affect aesthetic judgment of ambiguous artworks, even in the absence of exploration or constructional deficits.

show abstract

Where does brain neural activation in aesthetic responses to visual art occur? Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies

Cited by 88 publications

References 50 publications

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music

Global Sensory Qualities and Aesthetic Experience in Music

Neuropsychology of Aesthetic Judgment of Ambiguous and Non-Ambiguous Artworks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About