Saturday, November 2, 2013
Can't Figure Out Art? A Zap To The Brain Will Help You Like It
Stumped trying to look sophisticated at a museum? New research suggests that a little electrical zap to your brain could help you appreciate fine art more.
A study in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that the experience of viewing art can be made more enjoyable by activating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). A group of 12 volunteers rated paintings and photos depicting real-world situations more highly after a current was delivered through electrodes to that region of the brain, which has been implicated in the regulation of emotion. As previous studies have found, a little zap can be a powerful thing: Electrical stimulation to the scalp has been shown to improve people's math abilities and video game skills.
"The effect of stimulation was subtle, but still pretty remarkable considering the participants were basically just putting a battery on their head," neurologist Anjan Chatterjee told New Scientist about this study. Chatterjee suggests that perhaps activating this region of the brain improves your mood, making the experience of viewing artwork more enjoyable. In this study, the brain stimulation only enhanced viewers' appreciation of realistic art, not abstract works, which indicates that the process of viewing abstract art might involve different areas of the brain.
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