Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 Dec;149:107664. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107664. Epub 2020 Oct 29.
It has been hypothesized that embodied mechanisms encompassing the simulation of actions, emotions and corporeal sensations contribute to aesthetic appreciation of art. In line with this, in this study we assessed whether there is a relationship between the extent to which an artwork triggers motor resonance mechanisms and liking for the artwork. To this aim, we measured motor evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by TMS over M1 whilst participants viewed a series of paintings depicting either humans in static postures or performing dynamic actions, and paintings depicting static or dynamic non-human scenes. Following recording of MEPs, participants indicated how much they liked each painting and found the painting to be dynamic. Viewing of paintings depicting dynamic human actions was associated with a significant increase in MEPs size compared to baseline and to viewing of the other paintings. The more the painting conveyed the impression of a dynamic human action, the higher the MEPs amplitude and the more the artwork was liked. However, liking per se was not related to MEPs size. In fact, the positive relationship between MEPs size and preference for paintings depicting humans was entirely mediated by the perceived dynamism of the portrayed actions, and no positive relationship was observed between subjective preference for paintings depicting landscapes/objects and MEPs size. Overall, our data contribute to shed light on the possible role of embodied resonance mechanisms in aesthetic appreciation of visual art, and show that characterization of motor cortical excitability may serve as a promising approach in neuroaesthetics.
有人假设，包含动作、情感和身体感觉模拟的体现机制有助于对艺术的审美欣赏。根据这一点，在这项研究中，我们评估了艺术品引发运动共鸣机制的程度与对艺术品的喜爱之间是否存在关系。为此，我们测量了参与者观看一系列描绘静态姿势或动态动作的人类、静态或动态非人类场景的画作时，经 TMS 刺激 M1 引起的运动诱发电位（MEPs）。记录 MEPs 后，参与者表示他们喜欢每幅画的程度，并发现该画具有动态感。与基线相比，观看描绘动态人类动作的画作会导致 MEPs 幅度显著增加，与观看其他画作相比也是如此。画作传达出动态人类动作的印象越强烈，MEPs 的幅度就越高，对艺术品的喜爱程度也就越高。然而，单纯的喜好本身与 MEPs 的幅度无关。事实上，MEPs 幅度与喜欢描绘人类的画作之间的正相关关系完全是由所描绘动作的动态印象介导的，而对描绘风景/物体的画作的主观偏好与 MEPs 幅度之间没有正相关关系。总的来说，我们的数据有助于阐明体现共鸣机制在视觉艺术审美欣赏中的可能作用，并表明运动皮质兴奋性的特征可能是神经美学中的一种有前途的方法。
