I can’t say I totally understand what’s coming out of the neuropsych labs these days, but just seeing color pictures of how our brains light up is a treat for this visual artist. Many labs are using fMRI’s (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET scans (positron emission tomography) to better understand where the action is as we look at art and as we make it. Past areas of research on vision are ripe with potential for using our new brain tools  but two areas receiving attention already are how we create and look at portraits and how we create and respond to symmetry.

There is much evidence from prior work, including that with newborns, that the human brain is wired to respond to the human face. Evidence is just gathering that it may also be wired to respond to left-right symmetry, a hallmark of living organisms. On the other hand, these areas may be receiving attention because they adapt rather easily to using the new brain imaging techniques (much like the man looking for his lost car keys under the streetlamp because that is where the light is).

In one study of drawing portraits, both experienced and novice artists had more blood flow to the area of the brain for facial recognition, but less so for the expert, suggesting that the expert processes the relevant information more efficiently. The expert also showed more higher-order brain activity (right frontal) for making associations and planning motor movements than the novice. (1)

Even before using brain response studies, one lab related portraits and symmetry by analyzing portraits by 170 artists over a 200 year span. They found that one eye was overwhelmingly centered in the picture frame. They went on to find symmetry triggering activity in an obscure area of the brain so rapidly that there was no time for to complex eye movement scanning or comparisons. Others study symmetry and brain scans while humans look at images manipulated for various types of symmetry. (2)

Work done to understand the areas of the visual cortex that handle incoming visual stimuli suggests 3 major pathways of the optic nerve: 1) motion and edges, 2) color, 3) form and diagonal lines. One lab also proposes that each of these three major sensitivities has been emphasized by different schools of art, citing the  kinetic school, Seurat, op art, fauvism, etc. (3)

For perspective, there are at least 38 visual areas of which five have been studied (V1 – V5) and there are 12 pathways that are carried by the optic nerve. All of this is to say that our brains light up in very complex ways and very specific elements of vision are combined before we actually “see” a piece of art.
(1) http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=journals/leonardo/v034/34.1solso.html (>Search on Solso, Robert).
(2) http://www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=p5578   Tyler, Christopher
(3) http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Anno%20Economist%20Biology%20of%20Art.htm. 
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III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
Brizendine, Louann. The Female Brain. 2006.

This is a good primer for women and friends of women to understand how chemical changes in women’s brains affect their relationships to people and to pursuing their own interests.

The author is daring to teach female biology at the risk of being politically incorrect and follows female brain changes through each decade as shown in PET scans and the size of different brain areas. Chemical influences on brain areas of communication, gut feelings. emotional memory, anger suppression, verbalizing, reading faces and social nuance, and nurturing are striking. In menopause, chemical changes occur in brain areas that deal with pleasing others vs. pleasing self, with fewer hormones activating pathways of communication, emotion, tending and caring, and the urge to avoid conflict at all costs.

Most won’t want to read all she covers, but it could be instructive to learn more about the phase that you, or someone you care about, is in.
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IV. Creative Links
 http://harbaugh.uoregon.edu/Brain  
The Museum of Fabric Brain Art. Exotic image of brains are available here with beautifully fashioned crocheted and knitted brains.
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V. E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching (website www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, December 31, 2007, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
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