Secular Café: New Study integrating sensory input and emotional experience

Secular Café Serious discussion of science, skepticism, evolution, pseudoscience, and the paranormal

New Study integrating sensory input and emotional experience Apr 17th 2012, 10:26 Quote: Aesthetic Appeal May Have Neurological Link to Contemplation and Self-Assessment ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2012) — A network of brain regions which is activated during intense aesthetic experience overlaps with the brain network associated with inward contemplation and self-assessment, New York University researchers have found. Their study sheds new light on the nature of the aesthetic experience, which appears to integrate sensory and emotional reactions in a manner linked with their personal relevance. The study's co-authors were: Edward Vessel, a researcher in NYU's Center for Brain Imaging; Gabrielle Starr, an associate professor in NYU's Department of English; and Nava Rubin, an associate professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science. We all have strong aesthetic reactions to works of art, even though the images that move us vary across individuals. Moreover, we are moved by particular images for very different reasons. Nonetheless, the ability to be aesthetically moved appears to be universal. Previous neuroimaging studies have begun to pinpoint this process by identifying several brain regions whose activation correlates with a variety of aesthetic experiences. These include locations in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC) and the caudate/striatum, with several additional regions detected in some studies but not in others. The NYU researchers sought to build on this scholarship by examining more closely the intensity and diversity of aesthetic responses toward works of art. To do so, the study's subjects, who ranged from those with novice-level experience of art and art history to several having completed some undergraduate study in the history of art, examined 109 images from the Catalog of Art Museum Images Online database. These works of art came from a variety of cultural traditions (American, European, Indian, and Japanese) and from several historical periods (from the 15th century to the recent past). Images were representational and abstract, and included several classifications (e.g., female, male figure, a mixed group, still life, landscape, or abstract). In order to minimize recognition, which could yield responses based on a piece's notoriety rather than on its appeal, commonly reproduced images were not used -- in fact, most of the study's subjects did not recognize any image. .... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0416095104.htm

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