How the brain paints the beauty of a landscape

Date:
July 23, 2021
Source:
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Summary:
Researchers investigate how our brains proceed from merely seeing
a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
How does a view of nature gain its gloss of beauty? We know that the
sight of beautiful landscapes engages the brain's reward systems. But
how does the brain transform visual signals into aesthetic ones? Why do
we perceive a mountain vista or passing clouds as beautiful? A research
team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics has taken
up this question and investigated how our brains proceed from merely
seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact.


==========================================================================
In their study, the research team presented artistic landscape videos
to 24 participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
they measured the participants' brain activity as they viewed and rated
the videos. Their findings have just been published in the open-access
journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. First author A. Ilkay Isik encapsulates: "We would have expected the aesthetic signals to be limited
to the brain's reward systems, but surprisingly, we found them already
present in visual areas of the brain while the participants were watching
the videos. The activations occurred right next to brain regions deployed
in recognizing physical features in movies, such as the layout of a scene
or the presence of motion." Senior author Edward Vessel suggests that
these signals may reflect an early, elemental form of beauty perception:
"When we see something beyond our expectations, local patches of brain
tissue generate small 'atoms' of positive affect. The combination of
many such surprise signals across the visual system adds up to make for
an aesthetically appealing experience." With this new knowledge, the
study not only contributes to our understanding of beauty, but may also
help clarify how interactions with the natural environment can affect
our sense of well-being. The results might have potential applications
in a variety of fields where the link between perception and emotion is important, such as clinical health care and artificial intelligence.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ayse Ilkay Isik, Edward A. Vessel. From Visual Perception to
Aesthetic
Appeal: Brain Responses to Aesthetically Appealing Natural Landscape
Movies. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2021; 15 DOI: 10.3389/
fnhum.2021.676032 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210723105247.htm

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