Bringing It All Together

Abstract

The main goal of the article “The Neural Foundations of Aesthetic Appreciation” was to bring together the available evidence on the neural underpinnings of aesthetics from neuroimaging and neurology and offer an integral interpretative model. The authors relate how they wanted to explain how aesthetic appreciation was related to brain activity and why some studies had found that activity in some regions and other studies had found it in other regions. The authors proposed that there might be at least two stages of appreciation. The first stage is the formation of an initial impression. It involves perceptual processes interacting with attentional control signals and is mediated by a fronto-parieto-occipital network. The second stage is a deeper evaluation of the image and involves affective processes, searching for meaning, recalling personal experiences, and activating knowledge stored in memory.