Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics

Martin Skov is Senior Researcher at Copenhagen Business School and the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance. His research focuses on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of sensory liking. He has published extensively on neuroaesthetics, including the book Neuroaesthetics (2009) and an influential series of papers on the conceptual foundations of the field. Marcos Nadal is Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain. His research is devoted to characterizing the psychological, neural, and evolutionary foundations of aesthetic appreciation. His contributions earned him the Baumgarten Award from the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics and the Daniel Berlyne Award from the American Psychological Association Division 10.

• ContributorsPreface1 Neuroaesthetics as a scientific discipline: An intellectual historyMartin SkovPART 1: AESTHETIC LIKING2 Sensory liking: How nervous systems assign hedonic value to sensory objectsMartin Skov3 The neurobiology of likingEloise Stark, Kent C. Berridge and Morten L. Kringelbach4 Disliking: From adaptive disgust to uglinessChristoph Klebl, Michael Donner and Indra Bishnoi5 The influence of interoceptive signals on the processing of external sensory stimuliAlejandro Galvez-Pol, Enric Munar and James. M. Kilner6 Neural correlates of visual aesthetic appealEdward A. Vessel, Tomohiro Ishizu and Giacomo Bignardi7 Auditory pleasure elicited by musicErnest Mas-Herrero8 Odour aesthetics: Hedonic perception of olfactory stimuliGulce Nazli Dikecligil and Jay Gottfried9 Movement appreciationKohinoor M. Darda, Ionela Bara and Emily S. Cross10 The neuroscience of architecture: Beauty and behavior in the built environmentAlex Coburn, Adam Weinberger and Anjan Chatterjee11 Sexual selection, aesthetic appreciation, and mate choiceMichael J. Ryan12 Aesthetic sensitivity: Origin and development of an ideaAna Clemente13 The evolution of sensory valuation systemsEsther Ureña and Marcos NadalPART 2: ART14 Perception and cognition in visual art experienceRebecca Chamberlain15 The music systemAmy M. Belfi and Psyche Loui16 Watching and engaging in danceBeatriz Calvo-Merino17 Making sense of space: The neuroaesthetics of architectureZakaria Djebbara, Lars Brorson Fich and Giovanni Vecchiato18 Literature and poetryArthur M. Jacobs19 NarrativeFranziska Hartung20 Music-evoked emotions: Their contribution to aesthetic experiences, health, and well-beingLiila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch21 The health benefits of art experienceClaire Howlin22 Experiencing art in museumsAniko Illes & Pablo P. L. Tinio23 Context and complexity of aesthetic experiences: A neuroscientific viewJulia Crone and Helmut Leder24 Experiencing art in social settingsHaeeun Lee and Guido Orgs25 Top-down processes in art experienceAenne A. Brielmann26 Preferences need inferences: Learning, valuation, and curiosity in aesthetic experienceSander van de Cruys, Jo Bervoets and Agnes Moors27 Neuroscience of artistic creativityOshin Vartanian28 Expertise and the brain of the performing artistFredrik Ullén29 The evolution of symbolic material cultureFrancesco d'Errico30 Neuropsychology of art and aestheticsAlejandro Dorado and Marcos NadalIndex

"Considering how important to us are aesthetic experiences of all sorts—art, music, architecture, food and more—it is remarkable how long it took for early threads of scientific inquiry into their neural basis to start to be woven into whole cloth. This engaging handbook provides a wonderfully comprehensive overview of the current state of neuroaesthetics across modalities, across empirical and theoretical means of investigation and analysis, and across the implications for well-being and health. No serious student of the discipline should be without it."Peter Dayan, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics"In this very timely and comprehensive volume, editors Martin Skov and Marcos Nadal have brought together a wealth of empirical findings and theoretical points of view on the topic of neuroaesthetics. It’s remarkable that there is so much excellent material to cover, considering that the term neuroaesthetics itself is rather new, and the field is still nascent to some extent. But this handbook will contribute greatly to the future development and consolidation of this exciting research area by bringing together scholars and research themes that fall under its umbrella. Students and established investigators alike will find much to like in the remarkable breadth of topics, covering not only basic sensory processes that contribute to aesthetic experiences, but also research on a variety of art forms, including visual art, music, dance, poetry, architecture and more. It’s the kind of book that I expect we will keep handy on our shelves (virtual or otherwise): to look up a quick fact, to learn about a new area, or to ponder enjoyably on a winter’s night."Robert J. Zatorre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University"When I was in grade 9, the National Gallery of Canada spent 1.76 million dollars on a painting of a red stripe on a blue background (Barnett Newman, Voice of Fire). As Canadians, my family was outraged at the misuse of taxpayer money. Twenty years later, having followed my own passion for painting, I found myself giving a tour of the Gallery’s prized collections. I entered the room housing the painting and lost my breath. The artwork hasn’t changed—my brother still thinks it’s a waste of funds—but my experience of it has surprisingly metamorphosed and I now consider it a masterpiece. Meanwhile, the last twenty years has witnessed the maturation of neuroscience as a discipline, enabled by new ways of measuring brain function and new theories that link brains and behavior that have given birth to another surprise: neuroaesthetics. This book brings together the leading experts in this gangly teenager of a discipline, which is still figuring out what kinds of questions it can ask yet full of potential to make real an ultimate promise of neuroscience—to explain what makes us human and why we can find an experience aesthetic." Bevil R. Conway, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health