title: Enhancing aesthetic appreciation by priming canvases with actions that match the artist's painting style.
abstract: The creation of an artwork requires motor activity. To what extent is art appreciation divorced from that activity and to what extent is it linked to it? That is the question which we set out to answer. We presented participants with pointillist-style paintings featuring discernible brushstrokes and asked them to rate their liking of each canvas when it was preceded by images priming a motor act either compatible or incompatible with the simulation of the artist's movements. We show that action priming, when congruent with the artist's painting style, enhanced aesthetic preference. These results support the hypothesis that involuntary covert painting simulation contributes to aesthetic appreciation during passive observation of artwork.
authors.affiliation: Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, ICM, Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory Paris, France ; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127 Paris, France ; Inserm, U 1127 Paris, France ; CNRS, UMR 7225 Paris, France ; Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS-EHESS-ENS UMR 8129 Paris, France ; The Italian Society for Neuroaesthetics 'Semir Zeki' Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Ticini
authors.affiliation: Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, ICM, Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory Paris, France ; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127 Paris, France ; Inserm, U 1127 Paris, France ; CNRS, UMR 7225 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rachman
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS-EHESS-ENS UMR 8129 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pelletier
authors.affiliation: Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, ICM, Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory Paris, France ; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127 Paris, France ; Inserm, U 1127 Paris, France ; CNRS, UMR 7225 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dubal
keywords: action; aesthetic appreciation; art; mirror neurons; priming; simulation