Neuroscience of aesthetics

Chatterjee, Anjan; Vartanian, Oshin

doi:10.1111/nyas.13035

Cited by 208 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 169 publications

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“…In line with this idea, the unique ability of humans to appreciate aesthetic rewards such as music relies on higher order perceptual/ cognitive analysis and encompasses learning, experience, and cultural factors that would be expected to involve cortical systems (26)(27)(28). Our results also support the notion that to derive pleasure from music, the cortical and subcortical systems must act in concert; in particular, we found the interplay between the right STG and VS to be crucial.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

151

181

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Although music is ubiquitous in human societies, there are some people for whom music holds no reward value despite normal perceptual ability and preserved reward-related responses in other domains. The study of these individuals with specific musical anhedonia may be crucial to understand better the neural correlates underlying musical reward. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that musically induced pleasure may arise from the interaction between auditory cortical networks and mesolimbic reward networks. If such interaction is critical for music-induced pleasure to emerge, then those individuals who do not experience it should show alterations in the cortical-mesolimbic response. In the current study, we addressed this question using fMRI in three groups of 15 participants, each with different sensitivity to music reward. We demonstrate that the music anhedonic participants showed selective reduction of activity for music in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), but normal activation levels for a monetary gambling task. Furthermore, this group also exhibited decreased functional connectivity between the right auditory cortex and ventral striatum (including the NAcc). In contrast, individuals with greater than average response to music showed enhanced connectivity between these structures. Thus, our results suggest that specific musical anhedonia may be associated with a reduction in the interplay between the auditory cortex and the subcortical reward network, indicating a pivotal role of this interaction for the enjoyment of music.Without music, life would be a mistake.Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols T his quote highlights the importance of music for the life of most people. Indeed, although music is not a primary reward (such as food or sex), it is reckoned as one of the most important sources of pleasure in life. Furthermore, music has been present in human societies since prehistory (1), and most of the current literature on music psychology has described it as a universal reward for human beings (2). Its ubiquity and antiquity prove the importance of music in our society (3).Paradoxically, not everybody loves music: A small percentage of healthy individuals do not find music pleasurable, a phenomenon known as specific musical anhedonia (4). A detailed study on this population revealed that this phenomenon cannot be explained by perceptual problems [e.g., hearing impairment or specific impairment in perceptual capabilities, a condition known as amusia (5)] or by general anhedonia (lack of pleasure for all types of rewarding stimuli). When listening to music rated as pleasant by others, people with specific musical anhedonia showed a reduced emotional arousal as indexed by autonomic nervous system activity [in particular, skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate measurements] compared with people having standard or high sensitivity to music. Notably, they showed normal responses to other types of reward [e.g., money (4)]. Therefore, individuals with specific musical anhedonia represent an idea...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

151

181

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“…Without such a framework, individual studies remain isolated findings untethered to programmatic advances in understanding. Neuroaesthetics was helped by the introduction of general psychological and neuroscientific models that have since been debated and refined (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2016;Tinio, 2013;Nadal, Munar, Capó, Rosselló, & Cela-Conde, 2008;Jacobsen, 2006;Chatterjee, 2004a;Leder et al, 2004). Here, we apply one such general framework, the aesthetic triad, to architecture.…”

Section: Double Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we apply lessons from recent developments in neuroaesthetics, a discipline that investigates the neurobiological underpinnings of aesthetic experiences of beauty and art (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2016), to the neuroscience of architecture. These ideas and methods can be used to study aesthetic experiences in the built environment (Eberhard, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buildings, Beauty, and the Brain: A Neuroscience of Architectural Experience

Coburn

Vartanian

Chatterjee

2017

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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125

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A burgeoning interest in the intersection of neuroscience and architecture promises to offer biologically inspired insights into the design of spaces. The goal of such interdisciplinary approaches to architecture is to motivate construction of environments that would contribute to peoples' flourishing in behavior, health, and well-being. We suggest that this nascent field of neuroarchitecture is at a pivotal point in which neuroscience and architecture are poised to extend to a neuroscience of architecture. In such a research program, architectural experiences themselves are the target of neuroscientific inquiry. Here, we draw lessons from recent developments in neuroaesthetics to suggest how neuroarchitecture might mature into an experimental science. We review the extant literature and offer an initial framework from which to contextualize such research. Finally, we outline theoretical and technical challenges that lie ahead. and architecture promises to offer biologically inspired insights into the design of spaces. The goal of such interdisciplinary approaches to architecture is to motivate construction of environments that would contribute to peoples' flourishing in behavior, health, and well-being. We suggest that this nascent field of neuroarchitecture is at a pivotal point in which neuroscience and architecture are poised to extend to a neuroscience of architecture. In such a research program, architectural experiences themselves are the target of neuroscientific inquiry. Here, we draw lessons from recent developments in neuroaesthetics to suggest how neuroarchitecture might mature into an experimental science. We review the extant literature and offer an initial framework from which to contextualize such research. Finally, we outline theoretical and technical challenges that lie ahead. ■ Disciplines Bioethics and Medical Ethics | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Neurosciences

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“…Indeed, the mPFC is a core region of the social brain (Amodio and Frith, 2006; Van Overwalle, 2009): neuroimaging evidence suggests that it is involved in several aspects of social cognition, mediating self-representation (e.g., Gusnard et al , 2001; D'Argembeau et al , 2007; Jenkins and Mitchell, 2011), first impression formation (e.g., Mitchell et al , 2005a; Baron et al , 2011), personality trait inference (e.g., Ma et al , 2011, 2013a), attribution of mental states (Mitchell et al , 2005b), and social categorization, including stereotyping (Knutson et al , 2007; Quadflieg et al , 2009; Gilbert et al , 2012). Studies in the aesthetic domain found also consistent activation in the mPFC in response to preferred stimuli, whether faces or artworks (Jacobsen et al , 2006; Chatterjee et al , 2009; Chatterjee and Vartanian, 2016). Lesion studies confirm the central role of the mPFC in social cognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex mediates the interaction between moral and aesthetic valuation: a TMS study on thebeauty-is-goodstereotype

Ferrari

Nadal

Schiavi

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Attractive individuals are perceived as possessing more positive personal traits than unattractive individuals. This reliance on aesthetic features to infer moral character suggests a close link between aesthetic and moral valuation. Here we aimed to investigate the neural underpinnings of the interaction between aesthetic and moral valuation by combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with a priming paradigm designed to assess the Beauty-is-Good stereotype. Participants evaluated the trustworthiness of a series of faces (targets), each of which was preceded by an adjective describing desirable, undesirable, or neutral aesthetic qualities (primes). TMS was applied between prime and target to interfere with activity in two regions known to be involved in aesthetic and moral valuation: the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC, a core region in social cognition) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, critical in decision making). Our results showed that when TMS was applied over vertex (control) and over the dlPFC, participants judged faces as more trustworthy when preceded by positive than by negative aesthetic primes (as also shown in two behavioral experiments). However, when TMS was applied over the dmPFC, primes had no effect on trustworthiness judgments. A second Experiment corroborated this finding. Our results suggest that mPFC plays a causal role linking moral and aesthetic valuation.

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Neuroscience of aesthetics

Cited by 208 publications

References 169 publications

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Buildings, Beauty, and the Brain: A Neuroscience of Architectural Experience

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex mediates the interaction between moral and aesthetic valuation: a TMS study on thebeauty-is-goodstereotype

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