Authors Bullot & Reber (B&R) have proposed a key conceptual scheme of the scientific approach to art appreciation, that is, the art-historical context in three modes of art appreciation of basic exposure, design stance, and artistic understanding. Akin to philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists have been wary to acknowledge the importance of knowledge of or sensitivity to art-historical context in art appreciation. Because of the provisional nature of our current knowledge, the present synthesis entails necessary simplifications. However, given the psycho-historical framework proposed by B&R, bridging the gap between initial exploration and programmatic experimentation will be most efficient if researchers of art appreciation attend to and integrate contemporary neuroscientific researches on the processing of contextual information.
Art appreciation relies on the generation of meaning from artworks, such as visual patterns, with reference to various contexts, which may result from the processing of contextual information via interactions between memory and perception. What is the meaning-related brain activity and how is the contextual information processed in brain to generate meanings? To answer these questions, we carried out an fMRI study (Ejima et al. Reference Ejima, Takahashi, Yamamoto, Goda and Funahashi2007) in which subjects were asked to name each of visual stimuli (Rorschach inkblots, arrangements of geometric shapes, and face-like patterns) covertly as many as possible while regional blood oxygen-action level-dependent (BOLD) contrast was measured using fMRI: subjects were asked to think “what this might be” and to name covertly each stimulus as many items as possible. As a control experiment, fMRI measurements were carried out during passive viewing of the stimuli: subjects were instructed to concentrate on fixating on the central part of the stimulus and not to think about the visual stimuli. Our study identified bilateral regions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as the meaning-related brain activity: These included bilateral prefrontal activation in the cortical areas lining the inferior frontal sulcus, middle frontal gyrus (BA46/8), inferior frontal gyrus (BA44/45), and foci of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex (BA11). During passive viewing, activation was not observed in the regions of the prefrontal cortex, although extensive activation was observed in cortical regions in the parietal, temporal, occipito-ventral, and occipital cortices in both the naming-task and passive-viewing conditions. We also found that the meaning-related PFC activation strongly depended on the ambiguity and/or stimulus characteristics of the visual patterns. Our study indicates that activation of cortical regions in the PFC may be crucial for the appreciation of artworks.
It has been well established that the PFC is involved in problem solving and reasoning. Therefore, our findings provide direct empirical evidence for B&R's claim that appreciators of artworks may process the information about contexts through three modes of art appreciation, each of which elicits typical mental activities of reasoning: processing of sensory/feature contexts in basic exposure, causal reasoning in design stance, and theory-based reasoning in artistic understanding. We observed the foci of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex during appreciation of visual patterns. These cortical regions may be involved in emotion (Bechara et al. Reference Bechara, Tranel, Damasio, Boller and Grafman2002), which is assumed to be triggered by the epistemic processes of reasoning about art-historical contexts in the hypothetical model proposed by B&R. Furthermore, we found that extensive regions of the dorsolateral PFC were activated during appreciating visual patterns. The mechanisms of these cortical regions may underlie the hierarchical structure in art-appreciation behavior, proposed by B&R, taking account of hierarchically organized function of the dorsolateral PFC (Botvinick Reference Botvinick2008; Koechlin & Summerfield Reference Koechlin and Summerfield2007).
With regard to the functional properties of the dorsolateral PFC, Koechlin and Summerfield (Reference Koechlin and Summerfield2007) have proposed a model of prefrontal executive function, in which cognitive control operates according to three nested levels of control processes implemented from posterior to polar prefrontal regions, with control signals owing to events that occurred in the more and more distant past arising from successively more anterior cortical regions. At the apex of the hierarchy, most rostral parts of the lateral prefrontal cortex subserve in the arbitration among several past cue for cognitive judgment/action selection. The anterior dorsolateral PFC regions vary with episodic control, whereby a discrete past event defines a new set of rules of cognitive judgment/action selection. The posterior dorsolateral PFC varies with contextual control, whereby immediate environment provides a contextual signal to guide cognitive judgment/ action selection. The hypothesized brain mechanisms, processing contexts, in the PFC may share common properties among the processing of context in cognition and social cognition, including art appreciation. Contextual frames, including art-historical contexts, are presumably built up through real-world experiences whereby particular scenarios are experienced and subsequently influence how we perceive and predict artworks.
Contexts may also operate as nodes by which common events are organized in memory, generating semantic knowledge. Recent imaging and inactivation studies indicate that the PFC plays a crucial role during remote memory recall (reviewed by Frankland & Bontempi Reference Frankland and Bontempi2005): Initially memories are encoded in hippocampal-cortical networks (recent memory); as the memory matures connections between cortical modules are strengthened, allowing the memory to function independently of the hippocampus and with remote memories becoming more semantic in nature. At the later time point, the PFC is assumed to play an integrative role via reciprocal connections with the sensory, motor, and limbic cortices. The expanded networks could reflect a process that might underlie the generation of semantic knowledge. From this, one can argue that the recall of remote memories of art-historical context/knowledge may be predominantly associated with activation of regions in the PFC.
These findings support B&R's claim of the importance of art-historical contexts in art appreciation and will enable a multi-levels-of-analysis approach to understanding the processing of the art-historical contexts in three modes of art appreciation, in terms of the functional organization of the PFC, when perceivers share and make inference about the states of artworks in art history. B&R have proposed an empirically defensible assumption, allowing us to utilize information derived from brain science to highlight the fundamental sources of aesthetic experiences in humans.
Authors Bullot & Reber (B&R) have proposed a key conceptual scheme of the scientific approach to art appreciation, that is, the art-historical context in three modes of art appreciation of basic exposure, design stance, and artistic understanding. Akin to philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists have been wary to acknowledge the importance of knowledge of or sensitivity to art-historical context in art appreciation. Because of the provisional nature of our current knowledge, the present synthesis entails necessary simplifications. However, given the psycho-historical framework proposed by B&R, bridging the gap between initial exploration and programmatic experimentation will be most efficient if researchers of art appreciation attend to and integrate contemporary neuroscientific researches on the processing of contextual information.
Art appreciation relies on the generation of meaning from artworks, such as visual patterns, with reference to various contexts, which may result from the processing of contextual information via interactions between memory and perception. What is the meaning-related brain activity and how is the contextual information processed in brain to generate meanings? To answer these questions, we carried out an fMRI study (Ejima et al. Reference Ejima, Takahashi, Yamamoto, Goda and Funahashi2007) in which subjects were asked to name each of visual stimuli (Rorschach inkblots, arrangements of geometric shapes, and face-like patterns) covertly as many as possible while regional blood oxygen-action level-dependent (BOLD) contrast was measured using fMRI: subjects were asked to think “what this might be” and to name covertly each stimulus as many items as possible. As a control experiment, fMRI measurements were carried out during passive viewing of the stimuli: subjects were instructed to concentrate on fixating on the central part of the stimulus and not to think about the visual stimuli. Our study identified bilateral regions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as the meaning-related brain activity: These included bilateral prefrontal activation in the cortical areas lining the inferior frontal sulcus, middle frontal gyrus (BA46/8), inferior frontal gyrus (BA44/45), and foci of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex (BA11). During passive viewing, activation was not observed in the regions of the prefrontal cortex, although extensive activation was observed in cortical regions in the parietal, temporal, occipito-ventral, and occipital cortices in both the naming-task and passive-viewing conditions. We also found that the meaning-related PFC activation strongly depended on the ambiguity and/or stimulus characteristics of the visual patterns. Our study indicates that activation of cortical regions in the PFC may be crucial for the appreciation of artworks.
It has been well established that the PFC is involved in problem solving and reasoning. Therefore, our findings provide direct empirical evidence for B&R's claim that appreciators of artworks may process the information about contexts through three modes of art appreciation, each of which elicits typical mental activities of reasoning: processing of sensory/feature contexts in basic exposure, causal reasoning in design stance, and theory-based reasoning in artistic understanding. We observed the foci of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex during appreciation of visual patterns. These cortical regions may be involved in emotion (Bechara et al. Reference Bechara, Tranel, Damasio, Boller and Grafman2002), which is assumed to be triggered by the epistemic processes of reasoning about art-historical contexts in the hypothetical model proposed by B&R. Furthermore, we found that extensive regions of the dorsolateral PFC were activated during appreciating visual patterns. The mechanisms of these cortical regions may underlie the hierarchical structure in art-appreciation behavior, proposed by B&R, taking account of hierarchically organized function of the dorsolateral PFC (Botvinick Reference Botvinick2008; Koechlin & Summerfield Reference Koechlin and Summerfield2007).
With regard to the functional properties of the dorsolateral PFC, Koechlin and Summerfield (Reference Koechlin and Summerfield2007) have proposed a model of prefrontal executive function, in which cognitive control operates according to three nested levels of control processes implemented from posterior to polar prefrontal regions, with control signals owing to events that occurred in the more and more distant past arising from successively more anterior cortical regions. At the apex of the hierarchy, most rostral parts of the lateral prefrontal cortex subserve in the arbitration among several past cue for cognitive judgment/action selection. The anterior dorsolateral PFC regions vary with episodic control, whereby a discrete past event defines a new set of rules of cognitive judgment/action selection. The posterior dorsolateral PFC varies with contextual control, whereby immediate environment provides a contextual signal to guide cognitive judgment/ action selection. The hypothesized brain mechanisms, processing contexts, in the PFC may share common properties among the processing of context in cognition and social cognition, including art appreciation. Contextual frames, including art-historical contexts, are presumably built up through real-world experiences whereby particular scenarios are experienced and subsequently influence how we perceive and predict artworks.
Contexts may also operate as nodes by which common events are organized in memory, generating semantic knowledge. Recent imaging and inactivation studies indicate that the PFC plays a crucial role during remote memory recall (reviewed by Frankland & Bontempi Reference Frankland and Bontempi2005): Initially memories are encoded in hippocampal-cortical networks (recent memory); as the memory matures connections between cortical modules are strengthened, allowing the memory to function independently of the hippocampus and with remote memories becoming more semantic in nature. At the later time point, the PFC is assumed to play an integrative role via reciprocal connections with the sensory, motor, and limbic cortices. The expanded networks could reflect a process that might underlie the generation of semantic knowledge. From this, one can argue that the recall of remote memories of art-historical context/knowledge may be predominantly associated with activation of regions in the PFC.
These findings support B&R's claim of the importance of art-historical contexts in art appreciation and will enable a multi-levels-of-analysis approach to understanding the processing of the art-historical contexts in three modes of art appreciation, in terms of the functional organization of the PFC, when perceivers share and make inference about the states of artworks in art history. B&R have proposed an empirically defensible assumption, allowing us to utilize information derived from brain science to highlight the fundamental sources of aesthetic experiences in humans.