At the Crossroads of Art and Science: Neuroaesthetics Begins to Come into Its Own

A dancer steps onto the stage, her head encased in a white skullcap embedded with 64 electrodes, each designed to record and transmit signaling information from a different part of the brain (Fig. 1). Off to one side, a trio of graduate students pores over the data appearing on a laptop screen.

It’s a performance, yes. But it’s also research, probing a question that gets at the very heart of what it means to be human.

The question of creativity and the brain isn’t new. But as mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) technology has advanced, the field has reached a turning point. About 60 neuroscientists, performers, visual artists, engineers and others from around the globe converged on a resort in Cancun, Mexico, in late July 2016 for the 2016 International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity [1], a first-of-its-kind attempt to forge a common purpose by promoting audience-driven discussions whose content was provided by the participants themselves rather than the traditional agenda aligned with speaker presentations.

Author Contreras-Vidal, conference co-chair and the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston, was not sure what to expect when he began planning the conference, which invited people from a variety of complementary fields—almost evenly split between the arts and the sciences—to talk about their work, identify challenges and opportunities at the intersection of art and science, and set goals for the field’s future. A selected group of 30 university graduate students and postdoctoral fellows attended, as well, covered by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The students and postdocs, with funding from the National Science Foundation that made their presence possible, provided tangible evidence of growing interest in the field, not just among academics and artists but from the funding agencies who will be needed to support this work in the future.

The conference agenda addressed six broader impact areas:

• • How do the creative arts and aesthetic experiences engage the brain and mind and promote innovation?

• • How do art-science collaborations employ aesthetics as a means of problem-solving and how do they create meaning through aesthetic problem-solving?

• • How can museums and other public venues engage the public and facilitate interdisciplinary discourse and innovation in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM)?

• • How can the creative arts and neuroscience promote understanding of social cognition, improve health and advance education?

• • How are mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) technologies changing science, arts and innovation?

• • How can brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide direct access to neural activity about intentionality and emotional intelligence in the creative arts?

Among the questions raised early in the conference: How can researchers ensure that artists and their institutions—museums, theater groups, etc.—are full partners in the work, not only serving as research subjects but also helping to design and interpret the studies?

Fig. 1.

Your Brain on Dance. Mobile Bain-Body Imaging (MoBI) technology allows simultaneous recording of brain activity and movement gestures of freely performing individuals, as in the case of flamenco dance professor Miriam Phillips in this image.

(© Audrey Grayson. Photo: Carlos Landa.)

The roadmap ahead will not answer all those questions, but simply agreeing on a full partnership between scientist and artist has been a crucial first step. It is a rare opportunity when a scientific field’s advancement largely depends on developing long-term and meaningful relationships and collaborations with artists and arts institutions. One of the challenges moving forward will be how the field stays true to its rigorous scientific roots while remaining open to new ways of thinking within the arts. Similarly, the arts will need to remain open to the possibility that a neuroscientific understanding of the creative process can enrich their practice. Author Robleto, a Houston-based conceptual artist known for his deeply researched artistic exhibits, noted in an interview between panel presentations, “The perceived...