Nadal Marcos, Munar Enric, Capó Miquel Angel, Rosselló Jaume, Cela-Conde Camilo José
Department of Psychology, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Crta Valldermossa s/n, km 7,5, Palma de Mallorca 07122, Spain.
Spat Vis. 2008;21(3-5):379-96. doi: 10.1163/156856808784532653.
Aiming to provide a tentative framework for the study of the neural correlates of aesthetic preference, we review three recent neuroimaging studies carried out with the purpose of locating brain activity associated with decisions about the beauty of visual stimuli (Cela-Conde et al., 2004; Kawabata and Zeki, 2004; Vartanian and Goel, 2004). We find that the results of the three studies are not in line with previous neuropsychological data. Moreover, there are no coincidences among their results. However, when they are mapped on to Chatterjee's (2003) neuropsychological model of aesthetic preference it becomes clear that neuroimaging data are not contradictory, but complementary, and their interpretation is enriched. The results of these studies suggest that affective processes have an important role in aesthetic preference, and that they are integrated with cognitive processes to reach a decision regarding the beauty of visual stimuli. Future studies must aim to clarify whether certain methodological procedures are better suited to study any of the particular cognitive operations involved in aesthetic preference, and ascertain the extent to which the proposed framework is compatible with the aesthetic appreciation of musical stimuli.
为了为审美偏好的神经关联研究提供一个初步框架，我们回顾了最近三项神经影像学研究，这些研究旨在定位与视觉刺激美感决策相关的大脑活动（塞拉 - 孔德等人，2004年；川端和泽基，2004年；瓦尔塔尼安和戈尔，2004年）。我们发现这三项研究的结果与先前的神经心理学数据不一致。此外，它们的结果之间没有重合之处。然而，当将这些结果映射到查特吉（2003年）的审美偏好神经心理学模型上时，很明显神经影像学数据并非相互矛盾，而是互补的，并且对它们的解释也更加丰富。这些研究结果表明，情感过程在审美偏好中起着重要作用，并且它们与认知过程相互整合，以做出关于视觉刺激美感的决策。未来的研究必须致力于阐明某些方法程序是否更适合研究审美偏好中涉及的任何特定认知操作，并确定所提出的框架与音乐刺激审美欣赏的兼容程度。
