Introduction to Neuroaesthetics
According to Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, how this New Frontier in Neuroscience Can Transform Your Life.
Weeks after I read “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (pro tip: click on the link, as even their website is incredible), the words on its last page still reverberate: “The arts can transform you like nothing else. They can help you move from sickness to health, stress to calm, or sadness to joy, and they enable you to flourish and thrive. They can lead you to profound altered states, changing your very physiology.” (246) After reading such a book, such a sentence— how can I not be in its rapture?
Neuroaesthetics or neuroarts is the new niche in neuroscience—a multidisciplinary investigation of how the arts and aesthetics affect us. Its principal concern is to expand our relationship and understand how to translate the power of the arts to ourselves. This eye-opening book dives into the latest juicy research on how while “many of us tend to think of the arts as either entertainment or as an escape,” (x) the arts are, in fact, essential to our survival.
The new frontier of neuroarts
“The formation of the new field of neuroarts is building an important body of evidence about our brain on art” (xi) because the mounting evidence is proving that “the arts really do help us heal and thrive” (xi). The book goes into great detail to illustrate the spectacular innovations and marvellous revelations scientists across the discipline are discovering.
To understand the field of neuroarts, the authors take us on a tour, through scientific rigour, of the immense capacity of the brain and its structures. They lay the groundwork for this new field by introducing the four foundational concepts of the science of neuroaesthetics: neuroplasticity, enriched environments, the aesthetic triad, and the default mode network.
Concept #1: Neuroplasticity
The book defines neuroplasticity as “your brain’s ability to consistently form and reorganise neuronal connections and to rewire itself.” This relatively new fact about the brain is why it has revolutionised the field of neuroscience. Personally, it also has transformed the trajectory of my life. From the moment I first learned about neuroplasticity– I was hooked. Previously, most scientists had believed that the brain is an unchanging and static entity that deteriorates as we age.
But as the book highlights, your brain comprises “an interconnected network of roughly 100 billion neurons,” which are also connected to about 10,000 other neurons through synaptic transmission—how neurons communicate and connect.
Neurons are also described as “very social cells” that “need to communicate with other cells” constantly. How can it follow then that your brain is unchanging and deteriorating as you age when the brain is, in reality, dynamic and continuously rewiring? But that’s precisely what old theories once believed.
Concept #2: Enriched Environments
The second concept is of enriched environments. I am immediately reminded of the uninspiring interiors of a typical hospital treatment room or traditional bare-bones, borderline clinical classrooms. How uninspiring these environments are and perhaps even mentally stunting.
Enriched environments are the ideas around “how our surroundings have a cumulative effect on us. The state of our human-built environment–by this, we mean the places that aren’t purely natural and have been designed by us–impacts individuals and communities over time.” Let’s pause to appreciate this monumental fact.
The consistent findings throughout the research confirm that there are “positive outcomes of enriched spaces, and also how impoverished environments have a slow, corrosive effect on health and well-being” (15). So, yes, the colour of your walls at home and the feeling you get from the spaces you occupy most matter much more than you think.
The book details how a legendary neuroscientist named Marian Diamond first revealed the potential of the brain’s shifting abilities in the 1960s. In a study using mice, where the light environment, food, and basic survival needs were the control, a group of mice were given different stimulations.
The fascinating results revealed that the mice group with “a cage that included toys, textures, and objects to explore and play” resulted in “the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, from the enriched environment group had increased in thickness by six per cent as compared with those from the impoverished group, which had lost brain mass” (14). How remarkable!
Of course, the book also points out that “the ultimate enriched environment is nature. Nature is the most aesthetic of places, because it is our original home” (15). In the context of evolutionary development, this makes a lot of sense. The automatic sense of calm and connection we feel while in nature is undeniable. It’s evolutionary.
Concept #3: The Aesthetic Triad
Third is the hypothesis of the aesthetic triad, which includes “our sensorimotor systems, our reward system, and our cognitive knowledge and meaning-making—combine[d] to form an aesthetic moment” (16).
Aesthetic experiences are highly individualistic processes that depend on the existing structure of your brain, but also “your culture, your personal history, and the time and place in which you live,” which “all inform how you perceive and respond to something” (16). “That experience consists of a combination of factors unique to you and your biology and circumstance, as well as some universal qualities that all humans find aesthetically compelling,” like symmetry and another’s perceived kindness (17).
What neuroaesthetics highlights here is that there isn’t a right or wrong to what creates meaningful experiences for you. If you seek positive brain-altering aesthetic moments, they are consequently unique to you. What some may find mind-altering might not inspire as much wonder in you depending on many factors, so it’s less about the ‘what’ but more about how you subjectively react, what you value, and how you create meaning from the aesthetic experience.
Concept #4: the Default Mode Network (DMN)
Finally, neuroaesthetics is also about acknowledging your default mode network. “Your responses to the arts and aesthetics are as individual as the geometry of a snowflake” because “through your experiences, billions of new synapses form in your brain, and these conduits build a repository of stored knowledge and responses as unique as your fingerprints. No one else, not a single person on this planet, has your exact brain” (19).
Your default mode network (DMN) “is the neural container that lets you process when a work of art, a piece of music or a certain landscape in nature matters to you” (21). “The brain is a meaning-making machine in that it wants to connect the dots, find patterns and understand, and then build neural pathways accordingly” (20)— and the entire process is entirely subjective.
Your Aesthetic Life is Essential to Flourishing
The book's central insight is that your aesthetic life—your surroundings, which are sometimes beyond your control, and your stimulations, which are more in your control—is essential to your flourishing. The arts are more than just entertainment; they are an integral component of evolutionary progress and human intelligence.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in creativity, the arts, and human progress. It’s an incredible read—and for the record, what I’ve summarised above is literally only a look into the first few sections. The book gets so much better! The rest of the book will leave you mesmerised— as it continues for me.
This Community and This Newsletter
But, in the context of this community and this newsletter, all of this new science matters a lot because I feel what I am trying to create here is art— and if so, what I deliver to you weekly are your doses of art— of neuro-positive moments. Yet, while I consider myself a creative at heart, I am also a lover of science and data.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore the infinite possibilities of what a newsletter—this newsletter in particular—can be. I intend to experiment and capture honest moments of inspiration as I patiently share them with you.
I also felt compelled to lay new groundwork as The Happy Hue is going through a transition. I wanted each of you to be with me on what I’ve been contemplating. Whether you’re new here or want more clarity (on what the heck I am talking about), please read this.
I am increasingly realising that true health is more than optimising or harnessing the power of your brain, mind, body, and soul. Real wellness is also about honouring the things that inspire wonder in you and spending as much of your days doing the things that genuinely spark joy.
The Marriage of Science and Art
Most people think science and art are at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet this book marries the two seemingly polarised ends into an awe-inspiring combination of fruitful insights. As we walk into the future together, I plan to embark on an intimate journey of inspired expressions and exploration.
Everything I’ve dedicated my life to is about honouring the extraordinary potential of the human in you. I also can’t help but feel that this book fell into my lap for a universal-nudge-mystical-encouragement type of reason. The arts are healing— and I am not going to be the one to deny myself of this opportunity to explore again!
Thank you so much for being here. What an honour it is to have you spend some hours with me. I am grateful you are with me for this adventure.
Resource
Magsamen, S., & Ross, I. (2023). Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Penguin Random House.
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