Functional Imaging of Cognitive Processes underlying the Perception of Contemporary Visual Art
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1
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Brain Imaging Center and Department of Neurology, Germany
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2
Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Institute of Microanatomy and Neurobiology, University Medical Center, Germany
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3
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Brain Imaging Center and Department of Neurology, Germany
When people are absorbed by visual art, they perform various cognitive processes that may range from evaluation of visual features, judging the object's aesthetic value to considerations regarding the artist's original intention. Studies on perception of paintings are biased given their obvious artistic nature. Thus, a systematic investigation of cognitive processes underlying perception of artwork that depict objects and scenes that the brain knows from every-day-experience was warranted.
We collected 3T fMRI data while 58 participants evaluated 60 photographs on how obvious the author's intention, how aesthetic, or how detailed each stimulus was. Stimuli were presented for 90ms each. Data were analyzed using SPM8. Results (at cluster-level p<.05, FDR corr.) confirmed that judging visual detail engaged parietal on top of visual cortices. In contrast, both evaluating aesthetics and the author's intentions activated left more than right middle and inferior frontal, middle temporal and inferior parietal cortices. Visual (V3v, V4) and anterior mesial prefrontal cortices (mPFC) were specifically engaged in judging aesthetics while left lateralized premotor cortices and angular gyrus were more strongly activated by judging intentions.
Thus, aesthetic judgments and evaluations of the author's intentions relied on a similar core network that activates during tasks requiring Theory of Mind. This suggests that they share common processes that are related to self-reflection, evaluative and empathic judgments and semantic knowledge retrieval. Aesthetic judgments additionally engaged visual cortices and mPFC indicating an interaction between visual features analyses of contour and color and self-referential decision making. Our results suggest that the aesthetic appreciation of contemporary art is not only driven by evaluations of the visual Gestalt but also by inherent reflections on its purpose, which broadens the definition of aesthetics beyond simple stimulus properties.
Keywords:
Art,
Theory of Mind,
Visual Perception,
neuroaesthetics,
functional MRI
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Behrens
M,
Nicklas
P and
Kell
C
(2015). Functional Imaging of Cognitive Processes underlying the Perception of Contemporary Visual Art.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00015
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mrs. Marion Behrens, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Brain Imaging Center and Department of Neurology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, marion.behrens@kgu.de