Neuroscience study supports 200-year old art theory

Featured on sciencedaily.com

A pilot study from a group of Dutch scientists implies that being told that an image is an artwork automatically changes our response, both on a neural and behavioural level. This may mean that our brains automatically up or down-regulate emotional response according to the whether they think something should be understood at face value, or whether it should be interpreted as art. This tends to lend support to an over 200 year old theory of art, first put forward by the philosopher Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Judgement.

Most people understand that we will show a different conscious emotional response to a work of fiction or art, than we will to an equivalent real-life image. Now a team from Erasmus University in Rotterdam has tested how the unconscious brain responds to art and other types of images.

In two related experiments, twenty-four student volunteers were asked to evaluate a series of picture while brain activity was measured via an EEG. Half of the pictures were pleasant and the other half unpleasant. They were either told that the pictures were works of art or photographs of real events. At the end of the trial they were asked to rate each image according to likeability and, attractiveness.

The researchers concentrated on a brain signal called the LPP (Late Positive Potential), which is a measurement of the level of electromagnetic activity of the cortex between 0.6 and 0.9 seconds after the appearance of a stimulus. They were able to show that the amplitude of this stimulus was much greater when participants had been told that the picture was real, as against when they were told it was a work of art. When questioned, works of art were also rated as being more likable than were real pictures.

Click here to read the full article.