By Mariantonietta Popolizio
Mentorship Monica Malfatti
An in-depth look at neuroaesthetic, the phenomenon that explains the link between emotions and neuroscience, and how the social power of art makes us co-creators.
From goosebumps to “seeing” sounds, neuroaesthetics reveals that art is not merely spirit: it activates our senses and reduces stress, making emotion a necessity for well-being.
Have you ever experienced that moment when, listening to the crescendo of a song, you feel a shiver run down your spine? Or the impression that a sound has a color or a shape, that it is “light blue” or “round”? In these moments, the boundary between the artwork and the person disappears: it’s not merely an intangible impression, but a precise biological “signature”.
For decades we thought that art was a spirit’s exclusive domain, too abstract to be measured. Today neuroscience reveals a much more concrete reality: beauty has got a physiological trace etched into our neuronal circuits. Through neuroaesthetic, we found out that we are literally programmed for emotion, turning visual and auditory stimuli into fully embodied physical experiences.
Neuroaesthetics: when the brain becomes an “aesthete”
Nobel prize winner Eric Kandel argues that art and science are two sides of the same coin: both seek to understand who we are. When we look at a painting, for example, our brain does not simply register its colors. We activate areas associated with memory, empathy and the reward system; it’s a phenomenon that is linked to neuroaesthetics.
In practice, the mind analyzes the artwork in order to reconstruct the artist’s intention. It’s an active process of neuroaesthetics: we are not passive spectators, but rather “co-creators”. This explains the social power of art: it allows us to connect with other people’s emotions, transcending temporal and cultural barriers.
Neuroaesthetics reveals how the social power of art makes us “co-creators” and not merely passive spectators
The phenomenon of frisson in neuroaesthetics: the skin’s orgasm
The most intense physical sensation that art can give us is frisson (French for “shiver”). In the scientific neuroaesthetic’s domain it’s known as a skin orgasm or as “embodied emotion”. It’s not the ordinary goosebumps caused by cold, but a purely aesthetic response.
What happens inside us? During frisson, our brain releases a surge of dopamine, the same neurotransmitter associated with the leisure of food, sex or success. MIT and Harvard University’s studies found out that people who regularly feel these shivers have denser neuronal connections between the sensory cortex and emotional areas. In short, these people have faster biological “highways” for transforming an external stimulus into an overwhelming emotion.
Neuroaesthetics and artistic synesthesia: the blending of the senses
As neuroaesthetic reveals, art has the power to break down sensory boundaries also through synesthesia. It’s not merely a figure of speech, but a perceptual phenomenon: the ability to “see” a sound or to “taste” a colour. Even if for many people senses are separate compartments, the cerebral reality is much more fluid. Many artists turned this sensory overlap into a revolutionary language, and were unconsciously influenced by neuroaesthetics:
- Vasilij Kandinskij: he did not paint simple shapes, but “visual music”. For him, yellow was like a bright trumpet, light blue evoked the gentle sound of a flute;
- Ennio Morricone: the maestro who knew how to colour silence, turning simple notes into visual landscapes and emotional architectures capable of making us see the desert of feel nostalgia;
- Amy Beach: the composer who associated each musical key with a precise shade of colour;
- Vincent van Gogh: many researchers suggest that the rhythmic intensity of his starry skies derived from the fact that he “felt” the brushstrokes as sound vibrations.
Neuroaesthetics as “visual music” in “Gelb-rot-blau”, Vasilij Vasil’evič Kandinskij, 1925,Centre Pompidou, Paris
And yet it’s not a gift reserved for geniuses. Everyone possesses an innate synesthetic basis, as was demonstrated by the famous “Bouba-Kiki test”, through which we instinctively associate loud sounds with sharp shapes and soft sounds with rounded ones. But this deep connection between senses and psyche is not merely scientific curiosity, but also a concrete therapeutic resource. Today, in fact, neuroaesthetics enters pediatric hospitals, where the harmonious spaces’ design, made of carefully selected colours and sounds, activates a natural and powerful “placebo effect”, helping to ease the perception of pain in young patients..
Neuroaesthetics and the Mirroring Effect: becoming the art piece
There’s a final secret behind the power of art that reveals something more about neuroaesthetic: mirror neurons. Thanks to the mirroring mechanism of our neurons, when we look at a sculpture in a dynamic pose or at a painting made up of energetic brushstrokes, our brain is not only “watching”. The motor areas of our mind activate as if we were performing that gesture ourselves or applying that colour to the canvas. Our muscles, at a microscopic level, feel that tension. In neuroaesthetic it is about physical empathy: our motor system resonates with the artwork. Art literally moves inside of us.
Neuroaesthetic as cerebral “confusion” because it is good for us?
Understanding the hidden mechanisms behind neuroaesthetics is not merely useful to satisfy our curiosity, but opens incredible doors for mental health and for our well-being. In an increasingly digital and frenetic world, discovering again the ability to “stop for a shiver” is essential. These experiences reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) and activate our brain. Whether it is a graffiti mural, a classic sculpture or a techno track, our brain reminds us that we are made to connect, feel emotion and resonate together with what surrounds us.
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