Beauty and the Brain: Biological Aspects of Aesthetics ed. by Ingo Rentschler, Barbara Herzburger, and David Epstein (review)

BEAUTY AND THE BRAIN: BIOLOGICAL AESTHETICS ASPECTS OF by Ed Ingo Rentschler, Barbara Herzburger and David Epstein. Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland, 1988. ISBN: 3-7643-19240. Reviewed 6y RogerF. Malina, P. 0.Box 421704, SanFrancisco, CA 94142-1704, U.S. A. This volume is a series of essays resulting from seven meetings of the Studiengruppe Biologische Grundlagen der Aesthetik, held at the Werner-ReimersStiftung, Bad Homburg von der Hohe, West Germany. The group addressed various themes surrounding biological aspects of aestheticjudgment and creativity.The basic premise of the emerging field of ‘neuroaesthetics’ is that the revolution in our understanding of the brain must, if one holds to the Machian monistic position , allow art as a biological manifestation to be understood. Indeed the detailed mechanisms of visual percep tion are rapidly becoming elucidated through the classic brain lesion studies (as discussed at length in an essay byJerre Levy),by detailed studies correlating the triggering of specific neurons by specific visual stimuli, and by results of experimented aesthetics (essayby Marianne Regard and Theodor Landis).At more complex levels of neuronal organisation , visual illusions can be used to study the architecture of the visual processing system. Complex feature detectors, such as those for faces, have been identified in specific higher processing areas. As argued by Giinter Baumgartner in his essay, “PhysiologicalConstraints on the Visual Aesthetic Response”, these studies lead one to suppose that stimuli are preferred when their properties are favored by the internal mechanisms of visual processing. It is the challenge of the authors in this volume that more complex types of stimuli ‘favored’by the apparatus of the brain constitute positive aesthetic events. Since the brain has the remarkable property that it is self-rewarding (asdescribed in an essay by Frederick Turner and Ernst Poppel) through the release of various opioid peptides and pleasure-associated hormones , there is a biological mechanism that can be identified to motivate art-making and art experiences. nistic description is that the conventions of aesthetics vary from culture to culture and from epoch to epoch within the same culture. Giinter Baumgartner argues that this is a consequence of the plasticityof the brain. For instance, the cortical circuitry is known to be only incompletely preprogrammed genetically and depends on exposure in early postnatal life for its final wiring. Aesthetic values evolving over the course of an individual’s life can be ascribed to continued learning in cerebral areas of polymodal convergence, where signals from different sensory channels come together. The physiologically determined decrease in learning capacity with age may likewise underly the aesthetic conservatism of the elderly. If this picture is correct, Baumgartner argues, there is little reason to believe that a more complete understanding of the rules of internal processing of information will lead to a predictable scientific theory of aesthetic value. The complicated interplay between the genetically determined machinery, together with the specific learning experiences of each individual, leads to the aesthetic outlook of that individual. However , to the extent that artists are aware of the new knowledge and biology and neurophysiology, they will have new approaches they can use to heighten or accelerate aesthetic experiences . Marianne Regard and Theodor Landis, for instance, describe a series of experiments in which they probe the differing “personalities ”and “affectiveor aesthetic”judgments of the two halves of an individual ’s brain, differences that also depend on the sex of the perceiver. The volume also includes articles on biological aspects of music (by David Epstein),dance (byWalter Siegried) and cuisine (by Elizabeth Rozin). This volume is recommended to all readers of Leonardo,and artists will find the later chapters full of intriguing information on the functioning of the brain. The editors of this volume make a compelling case that current scientific understanding of the brain provides the basis for an exciting new biological basis for aesthetics. A counterargument to this mechaBEAUTY AND THE BRAIN: BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF AESTHETICS Ingo Rentschler, Barbara Herzberger and Davis Epstein, eds. Birkhiiuser, Berlin, West Germany, 1989. 325 pp. Trade, SFr 68. Reviewed 6y RudolfAmheim, 1133 7th Street S., Ann Arbor, MI 48103, US,A. In its strict sense, this book is devoted to the relations between the nervous system and aesthetic experience.Actually , however...