Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Beauty is in the medial orbito-frontal cortex of the beholder.


According to this recent study, any work of visual, musical, or performance art that is thought to be "beautiful" by an individual activates their pleasure/reward center in the brain. Researchers were able to witness this brain activity by observing 21 volunteers' using an fMRI scanner. Art works considered "ugly" did not consistently fire any specific area of the brain.

This is the first time scientists have been able to confirm that visual and audio pleasure occupy and share a common specific space in the brain.

This study confirms that beauty is in fact an abstract concept within the brain, not a thing that is inherent in objects.

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