Maybe it's because I'm getting older. I want to know the names of trees, birds, and wildflowers. I'm fascinated by the changing of the seasons. I go to the local forest at 6am not because the “forest commotion” from the night before is still going on, but because I want to be out in nature as soon as I wake up and enjoy the bright morning light, the dew on the leaves, and the noisy chirping of the birds.
Or maybe I'm just getting in touch with a part of my true nature that I've suppressed, or at least never acknowledged, that is leading me to love, appreciate, and even crave all of this. Maybe the colors and sounds and textures of nature are things that even we city dwellers are conditioned to find beautiful and awe-inspiring. And maybe all of this is an important, yet underappreciated, part of our well-being.
At any rate, this is the argument made by some thinkers in an emerging interdisciplinary field that emphasizes the importance of art, beauty and nature to our mental and physical health.
Neuroaesthetics, a term first coined in 1999 by neurobiologist Semir Zeki of University College London, is a subfield of both applied aesthetics and cognitive neuroscience that studies the brain's responses to various forms of aesthetic experience. Its proponents argue that engagement with art and nature is not a “nice to have,” but a necessity.
This idea is called “Mindfulness This world we've all been told about is very good and important to us (I'm a fan of it myself, but I don't like the name), but as Dr. Art and the Brain: How Art Changes Us Recent neurological research shows that aesthetic experiences are much more than that: indeed, aesthetic experiences may help us feel more present and quiet the endless noise in our minds, but neuroaesthetics, she argues, constitutes “an entirely new avenue” in itself.
“We've learned about nutrition, we've learned about sleep, we've learned about exercise, we've learned about mindfulness,” Magsamen says. “Now we're seeing that art and aesthetic experiences are essential to the human condition,” she explains. can “Mindful” activities have similar benefits by reducing activation in the brain's stress-related amygdala, reducing cortisol and shifting you into a parasympathetic “rest and digest” state, but neural scans have shown that there's much more to aesthetic experiences than this.
Perhaps most surprising is that the study Zeki's research shows that while we may all have different ideas about what constitutes beauty, the same area of the brain activates when we perceive something as beautiful – the medial orbitofrontal cortex, or mOFC. This is true whether we're talking about visual, musical, mathematical or moral beauty.
There is also a wealth of evidence supporting the claim that exposure to the arts has positive health effects. study Researchers at University College London used data from more than 6,000 adults aged 50 and over, taking into account economic, health and social factors, and found that those who took part in “arts activities” at least once every few months were 31% less likely to die over a follow-up period (average 12 years).
In the study, The benefits of music Other studies have also shown it may be beneficial for people with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. dance By increasing neuroplasticity and stimulating multiple layers of the nervous system, it can help Parkinson's patients.
It's worth pointing out that you don't have to be particularly talented in a particular artistic field to benefit from it. “Whether you're good at that field or not has absolutely no bearing on your neuroaesthetic benefit,” says Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. But we were all creative as kids — we drew, we danced, we banged pots and pans — and many of us give up on our artistic pursuits when we're told we're not all that good at it.
According to neuroaestheticians, that's a mistake. In fact, even if you were blessed with some artistic talent and made it your profession, you may not be enjoying the same benefits now that you're relying on that talent to make a living. Your brain has probably shifted from a free-spirited, creative flow state to what Swart calls a “control state,” which is more critical and detail-oriented. So go out and make some damn art. Or, if you prefer, expose yourself to beautiful things. Your brain will thank you.
