Skip to main content

Distributed for Museum Tusculanum Press

An Introduction to Neuroaesthetics

The Neuroscientific Approach to Aesthetic Experience, Artistic Creativity and Arts Appreciation

Distributed for Museum Tusculanum Press

An Introduction to Neuroaesthetics

The Neuroscientific Approach to Aesthetic Experience, Artistic Creativity and Arts Appreciation

Advances in cognitive science have had a tremendous philosophical impact, offering new ways of thinking about topics such as who we are, what we know, and how we feel. But few topics are murkier—and have more to gain from cognitive science—than aesthetics. With this volume, Jon O. Lauring offers a cutting-edge introduction to the emerging field of neuroaesthetics. Gathering works from leading scholars all across the globe, he surveys the many ways we have taken what we have learned about our brains and nervous system and applied it to new understandings of art, beauty, and creativity.
           
The contributors explore the biological underpinnings of aesthetic experience from a variety of angles. Opening with a look at neuroaesthetics’s historical antecedents and an outline of methods and theories, the book goes on to address a fascinating assortment of studies on biological stimuli and art, from faces and landscapes to literature and film, from places and architecture to music and dance. Simultaneously exploring data from the latest brain-imaging technology and addressing some of our most enduring philosophical quandaries, this volume offers a comprehensive look at a pivotal moment in aesthetics, which grows richer every day with new questions.  

436 pages | 5 color plates, 15 halftones | 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 | © 2014

Art: Art--General Studies

Medicine


Museum Tusculanum Press image

View all books from Museum Tusculanum Press

Table of Contents

Preface

1. A History for Neuroaesthetics

Marcos Nadal, Antoni Gomila, and Alejandro Gàlvez-Pol

2. Experimental Aesthetics

Helmut Leder and Pablo P. L. Tinio

3. The Theoretical and Methodological Backdrop of Neuroaesthetics

Jon O. Lauring

4. Visual Art

Jon O. Lauring

5. Seeing Faces in the Brain

Alumit Ishai

6. Environmental Neuroaesthetics, Places, and Architecture

Nicolai Rostrup

7. The Musical Brain

Jens Hjortkjær

8. Literary Reading

David S. Miall

9. Film, Neuroaesthetics, and Empathy

Torben Grodal and Mette Kramer

10. Neuroaesthetics and Dance

Beatriz Calvo-Merino and Julia F. Christensen

11. Neuropsychology of the Arts

Bartlomiej Piechowski-Jozwiak and Julien Bogousslavsky

12. Generating Aesthetic Products in the Scanner: fMRI Studies of Drawing, Story Writing, and Jazz Improvisation

Oshin Vartanian

Glossary

Contributors

Index

 

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press