Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics February 11, 2010

'Beauty and the Brain' is both an exhibition and an experiment. Visitors will be invited to explore aesthetic spaces created by digitally morphing original works of art. Subject areas include modern abstract sculptures by renowned 20th-century artist Jean Arp. Responses from participants will be used to analyze how 3-D shape characteristics define aesthetic preference. The results will form the basis for experiments measuring aesthetic responses in the human brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging.