Week 7 | Neuroscience + Art
My previous experience with neuroscience and psychology was a semester longe psychology course that I took in high school. While I don't remember specifics from the course, I do remember enjoying the class, and the topics that were introduced. This background knowledge helped me understand the topics this week on neuroscience and art. Art and the brain are intertwined. Artwork is able to capture the emotions of feelings of an artist, and in turn, allows us to also feel what the artist is feeling.
What stood out to me the most was Christopher deCharm's TED talk. He explains that the brain can be mapped in real-time through the use of an MRI. This meant that it was possible for people to see where in the brain the signals from their actions were sent to. With this people were able to control their pathways, and subsequently train their brains. Using this method, there was a 44% to 64% reduction in chronic pain patients. I knew that MRIs were able to show signals in the brain, but I did not think that anything could be done knowing what region in the brain was stimulated. It was super interesting to learn that people are able to train their brains by seeing the pathway, and subsequently changing them.
An example of where art and the mind come together is with photographs. A photograph is a piece of art, and oftentimes photos make us feel a certain way or bring back memories from when they were taken. When I was 9 years old, my family and I went on vacation to visit Vietnam. I was young at the time, so when unprompted I find it difficult to remember the experiences I had. However, when I see old pictures from the trip, it brings back the memories. Remembering how I felt hot and humid while I ran around VinPearl, a theme park in Vietnam, or seeing a photo of myself at my aunt's house, remembering the excitement of my parents meeting family members that they haven't met in decades. This goes beyond just a vacation photo and applies to all types of pictures. For example, seeing a picture of the beach, being able to smell the salty air, or feel the warm sand beneath your feet. A piece of art, the photo, stimulates emotions and feelings in our brains.
deCharms, Christopher. “A Look inside the Brain in Real Time.” TED, www.ted.com/talks/christopher_decharms_a_look_inside_the_brain_in_real_time#t-123426.
“Famous Happy Paintings.” Famous Happy Paintings, www.artranked.com/topic/Famous+Happy.
Gróf, Peter. “The Origins of Emotions in Photography.” Medium, Photo Dojo, 31 Dec. 2020, medium.com/photo-dojo/the-origins-of-emotions-in-photography-b188869aebc0.
Landau, Elizabeth. “What the Brain Draws from: Art and Neuroscience.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Sept. 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind.
Le, Nhi. “Vinpearl Land Nha Trang - All in One Destination That You Don't Want To Miss.” Local Insider by Inspitrip, 9 Sept. 2019, inspitrip.com/blog/13277/vinpearl-land-nha-trang-all-in-one-destination-that-you-dont-want-to-miss/.
Leman, Jennifer. “The Brain in Images: Top Entries in the Art of Neuroscience.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 29 July 2019, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brain-in-images-top-entries-in-the-art-of-neuroscience1/.
Mastandrea, Stefano, et al. “Art and Psychological Well-Being: Linking the Brain to the Aesthetic Emotion.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 16 Mar. 2019, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00739/full.
“Working Magic: FDA Clears New Speedy MRI Scanning Technique.” GE News, www.ge.com/news/reports/working-magic-fda-clears-new-speedy-mri-scanning-technique.
This post was interesting, and I can relate to a lot of what you said. I was not aware that MRIs could be used to control brain pathways, so this fact surprised me. I am now curious about the ways in which scientists can train brains as well as the various practical uses of these techniques. In addition, I enjoyed how you discussed the relationship between art and memories. I agree that forms of art such as images, songs, and movies are extremely helpful when it comes to accessing old, forgotten memories. This leads me to believe that our brains are wired to store art in a unique way, and that there is an inherent connection between art and the brain.
ReplyDeleteHi Kent,
ReplyDeleteYou did a really amazing job of tying in your personal experience to the material that we covered this week. I think the example you used of photographs and how they can elicit certain senses or memories is very fitting. Art in itself is a piece of work produced in order to create specific feelings or reactions in the viewer, and I believe that photography is often an under appreciated form of art in its potential to do so. It would be interesting to see how, using the technology outlined by deCharm's TED Talk, the brain reacts to seeing visual stimuli such as photographs form personal memories.