The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics

The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics is an authoritative reference work that provides the reader with a wide-ranging introduction to this exciting new scientific discipline. The book brings together leading international academics to offer a well-balanced overview of this burgeoning field while addressing two questions central to the field: how the brain computes aesthetic appreciation for sensory objects and how art is created and experienced. The editors, Martin Skov and Marcos Nadal, have compiled a neuroscientific, physiological, and psychological overview of the systems underlying the evaluation of sensory objects and aesthetic appreciation. Covering a variety of art forms mediated by vision, audition, movement, and language, the handbook puts forward a critical review of the current research to explain how and why perceptual and emotional processes are essential for art production. The work also unravels the interaction of art with expectations, experience and knowledge and the modulation of artistic appreciation through social and contextual settings, eventually bringing to light the potential of art to influence mental states, health, and well-being. The concepts are presented through research on the neural processes enabling artistic creativity, artistic expertise, and the evolution of symbolic cognition. This handbook is a compelling read for anyone interested in making a first venture into this exciting new area of study and is best suited for students and researchers in the fields of neuroaesthetics, perceptual learning, and cognitive psychology.

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.

Contributors Preface 1 Neuroaesthetics as a scientific discipline: An intellectual history Martin Skov PART 1: AESTHETIC LIKING 2 Sensory liking: How nervous systems assign hedonic value to sensory objects Martin Skov 3 The neurobiology of liking Eloise Stark, Kent C. Berridge and Morten L. Kringelbach 4 Disliking: From adaptive disgust to ugliness Christoph Klebl, Michael Donner and Indra Bishnoi 5 The influence of interoceptive signals on the processing of external sensory stimuli Alejandro Galvez-Pol, Enric Munar and James. M. Kilner 6 Neural correlates of visual aesthetic appeal Edward A. Vessel, Tomohiro Ishizu and Giacomo Bignardi 7 Auditory pleasure elicited by music Ernest Mas-Herrero 8 Odour aesthetics: Hedonic perception of olfactory stimuli Gulce Nazli Dikecligil and Jay Gottfried 9 Movement appreciation Kohinoor M. Darda, Ionela Bara and Emily S. Cross 10 The neuroscience of architecture: Beauty and behavior in the built environment Alex Coburn, Adam Weinberger and Anjan Chatterjee 11 Sexual selection, aesthetic appreciation, and mate choice Michael J. Ryan 12 Aesthetic sensitivity: Origin and development of an idea Ana Clemente 13 The evolution of sensory valuation systems Esther Ureña and Marcos Nadal PART 2: ART 14 Perception and cognition in visual art experience Rebecca Chamberlain 15 The music system Amy M. Belfi and Psyche Loui 16 Watching and engaging in dance Beatriz Calvo-Merino 17 Making sense of space: The neuroaesthetics of architecture Zakaria Djebbara, Lars Brorson Fich and Giovanni Vecchiato 18 Literature and poetry Arthur M. Jacobs 19 Narrative Franziska Hartung 20 Music-evoked emotions: Their contribution to aesthetic experiences, health, and well-being Liila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch 21 The health benefits of art experience Claire Howlin 22 Experiencing art in museums Aniko Illes & Pablo P. L. Tinio 23 Context and complexity of aesthetic experiences: A neuroscientific view Julia Crone and Helmut Leder 24 Experiencing art in social settings Haeeun Lee and Guido Orgs 25 Top-down processes in art experience Aenne A. Brielmann 26 Preferences need inferences: Learning, valuation, and curiosity in aesthetic experience Sander van de Cruys, Jo Bervoets and Agnes Moors 27 Neuroscience of artistic creativity Oshin Vartanian 28 Expertise and the brain of the performing artist Fredrik Ullén 29 The evolution of symbolic material culture Francesco d'Errico 30 Neuropsychology of art and aesthetics Alejandro Dorado and Marcos Nadal Index