title: Viewing artworks: contributions of cognitive control and perceptual facilitation to aesthetic experience.
abstract: When we view visual images in everyday life, our perception is oriented toward object identification. In contrast, when viewing visual images as artworks, we also tend to experience subjective reactions to their stylistic and structural properties. This experiment sought to determine how cognitive control and perceptual facilitation contribute to aesthetic perception along with the experience of emotion. Using functional MRI, we show that aesthetic perception activated bilateral insula which we attribute to the experience of emotion. Moreover, while adopting the aesthetic orientation activated the left lateral prefrontal cortex, paintings that facilitated visuospatial exploration activated the left superior parietal lobule. The results suggest that aesthetic experience is a function of the interaction between top-down orienting of attention and bottom-up perceptual facilitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ont., Canada M1C 1A4. cupchik@utsc.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Gerald C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Cupchik
authors.forename: Oshin
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vartanian
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crawley
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mikulis
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010151:Paintings; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*