Question 2 of 21

What is neuroesthetics?

... Neuroimaging is one way to learn more about the brain and the problems and psychology of arts and aesthetics, but it's not the only tool used in this new discipline. Neuroesthetics aims to understand how brain functions work with creative ability and why we appreciate art and aesthetics.

Question 3 of 21

What critical functions do art and the brain share?

... The brain never stops acquiring knowledge, and this inherently puts humans into philosophical states. The brain can make this knowledge abstract in our constantly changing states and communicate it to others through words and visual means. The visual brain constantly seeks knowledge from objects it sees, such as art, for example.

Question 4 of 21

The founders of ________ might have been unknowingly mimicking the brain's perceptual abilities.

... According to neuroesthetics professor Semir Zeki, it's entirely possible that Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were mimicking our brains' perceptual abilities when they founded Cubism. This abstract style eliminated the image's point of view, along with the distance and lighting typical of previous movements.

Question 5 of 21

Artist Katherine Sherwood said her art changed considerably after she had a ________ .

... A left-hemisphere stroke caused aphasia (the inability to communicate) and weakness in Sherwood's right side. She says that after that, her art became much more raw and intuitive, and that she painted using large and random, irregular circles. Neuroestheticians such as Anjan Chatterjee attribute these changes to the "neuropsychological effects of art."

Question 6 of 21

How might neuroscience explain Vincent van Gogh's art?

... Many theories abound as to whether a medical condition afflicted van Gogh, but experts generally agree that the artist had epilepsy. A Harvard Medical School physician says damage to van Gogh's temporal lobe from the epilepsy could have caused him to perceive colors as brighter than normal and images more vivid than they actually were.

Question 7 of 21

How can researchers better understand how we perceive and evaluate art and music?

... Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) helps researchers study how we perceive and evaluate aesthetics by showing patterns of activity in the areas of the brain involved with thinking, feeling or acting out certain emotions. So far, the studies have revealed commonalities among subjects, along with many individual differences, which might explain why art, music and literature appeal to most of us, yet we have very individualized tastes.

Question 8 of 21

Berlin researchers also have used fMRI to study the tight grip that ________ can have on viewers' minds.

... A Berlin neuroscientist has brought his studies together with a film director in a new field of "neurocinematic" studies. Researchers can observe and record the states of viewers' brains while they watch movies, to begin explaining why some films can exert more control over viewers' minds than others.

Question 9 of 21

What are orientation selective cells?

... Orientation selective cells respond selectively to straight lines and likely are the neural building blocks to how we perceive shape or form in art, architecture and other aesthetics.

Question 10 of 21

What well-known scientific publication has used fine art for its cover illustrations for about 50 years?

... Since the 1960s, JAMA has used fine art to grace the cover of its respected and highly clinical journal. The art often has nothing whatsoever to do with the journal's contents.

Question 11 of 21

How might neuroscience help explain the smile of the Mona Lisa, which seems to change?

... According to author Jonah Lehrer, the Mona Lisa's smile changes depending on how you look at the painting. He says Leonardo da Vinci engineered a sort of brain paradox into the painting, and that the smile subtly shifts with the viewer's angle, which is part of the allure and enigma.

Question 12 of 21

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel were awarded the Nobel Prize for their 1950s experiments on ________ .

... Hubel and Wiesel helped change our thinking on how the cells in the brain's visual cortex respond to visual stimuli, and they were honored by the Nobel committee for their work. It turns out the brain prefers contrast to brightness and straight edges to curves.

Question 13 of 21

Why are Paul Cezanne's virtually empty landscapes, such as Mont Sainte-Victoire so pleasing to our eyes -- and brains?

... With simple suggestions of rivers, trees and mountains, the brain gets just enough information to "solve" the rest of the perceptual puzzle and "fill in the blanks," which can appeal more than a painting that does all the work for us.

Question 14 of 21

Is neuroesthetics widely accepted as a field?

... Neuroesthetics is a relatively new field, and it faces plenty of criticism. Mostly, detractors say that art is too hard to define or study with logical, scientific methods. Critics say that the field's proponents are overreaching by trying to explain our enjoyment of arts and literature with imaging studies of the brain's neurons.

Question 15 of 21

Why can we recognize faces more quickly in caricatures than in photographs?

... The area of the brain that is involved in facial recognition is called the fusiform gyrus, and it responds more readily to caricatures because cartoons emphasize the sorts of features that help us distinguish among all of the faces we know and see.

Question 16 of 21

Has any real connection ever been found between mental illness and creativity?

... There's a connection, but it's not definitive. A Swedish study found that very creative, but healthy, people share certain brain chemistry features in common with people who have schizophrenia.

Question 17 of 21

What is art therapy?

... Art therapy is used across many disciplines to help people express their emotions and better come to terms with physical and emotional problems. Many art therapists believe that visual or expressive arts can be healing and that the act of creating can influence brain wave patterns and the release of neurochemicals in the brain.

Question 18 of 21

What are mirror neurons?

... Mirror neurons fire when you perform an action, but also when you observe someone else performing an action, such as falling and becoming injured. They're associated with feelings more than thinking.

Question 19 of 21

What do mirror neurons have to do with aesthetics?

... Mirror neurons are being studied by neuroscientists for a number of reasons, such as helping to explain empathy. But they also could explain some of the emotions we feel when we look at a canvas or see a ballet. Still, we respond as we do against the backdrop of history, our own past experiences and many other forces, not just mirror neurons.

Question 20 of 21

Why is abstraction important for the brain?

... According to professor Semir Zeki, abstraction helps the brain acquire knowledge by eliminating the need to recall so many details. Art and aesthetics often are abstract in their interpretations.

Question 21 of 21

How quickly can the brain scan an object to see if it's symmetrical?

... Determining symmetry is almost intuitive; our brains can scan a physical object to determine if it's symmetrical in less than 0.5 seconds. And artists often produce symmetry in objects intuitively as well, knowing that symmetry usually appeals to the human eye and brain.

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