The enactive approach to architectural experience: A neurophysiological perspective on embodiment, motivation, and affordances

From the enactivist perspective, the way people perceptually experience the world, including architectural spaces, is governed by the dynamic sensorimotor activity of the human organism as a whole and is thereby influenced by the particular conditions of man’s embodiment

Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

The modularity of aesthetic processing and perception in the human brain. Functional neuroimaging studies of neuroaesthetics.

By taking advantage of the advent of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) this thesis argues that aesthetics belongs in the domain of neurobiology by investigating the different brain processes that are implicated in aesthetic perception from two perspectives. The first experiment explores a specific artistic style that has stressed the problem in the relationship between objects and context. This study investigates the neural responses associated with changes in visual perception, as when objects are placed in their normal context versus when the object-context relationship is violated. Indeed, an aim of this study was to cast a new light on this specific artistic style from a neuroscientific perspective. In contrast to basic rewards, which relate to the reproduction of the species, the evolution of abstract, cognitive representations facilitates the use of a different class of rewards related to hedonics. The second part investigates the hedonic processes involved in aesthetic judgments in order to explore if such higher order cognitive rewards use the same neural reward mechanism as basic rewards. In the first of these experiments we modulate the extent to which the neural correlates of aesthetic preference vary as a function of expertise in architecture. In the second experiment we aim to measure the more general effects of labelling works of art with cognitive semantic information in order to explore the neural modulation of aesthetic preference relative to this information. The main finding of this thesis is that stimulus affective value is represented separately in OFC, with positive reward (increasing aesthetic judgments) being represented in medial OFC and negative reward value is being represented in lateral OFC. Furthermore ventral striatum encode reward expectancy and the predictive value of a stimulus. These findings suggest a dissociation of reward processing with separate neural substrates in reward expectancy and stimulus affective value

The Default-Mode Network Represents Aesthetic Appeal that Generalizes Across Visual Domains

Visual aesthetic evaluations, which impact decision-making and well-being, recruit the ventral visual pathway, subcortical reward circuitry, and parts of the medial prefrontal cortex overlapping with the default-mode network (DMN). However, it is unknown whether these networks represent aesthetic appeal in a domain-general fashion, independent of domain-specific representations of stimulus content (artworks versus architecture or natural landscapes). Using a classification approach, we tested whether the DMN or ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOT) contains a domain-general representation of aesthetic appeal. Classifiers were trained on multivoxel functional MRI response patterns collected while observers made aesthetic judgments about images from one aesthetic domain. Classifier performance (high vs. low aesthetic appeal) was then tested on response patterns from held-out trials from the same domain to derive a measure of domain-specific coding, or from a different domain to derive a measure of domain-general coding. Activity patterns in category-selective VOT contained a degree of domain-specific information about aesthetic appeal, but did not generalize across domains. Activity patterns from the DMN, however, were predictive of aesthetic appeal across domains. Importantly, the ability to predict aesthetic appeal varied systematically; predictions were better for observers who gave more extreme ratings to images subsequently labeled as high or low. These findings support a model of aesthetic appreciation whereby domain-specific representations of the content of visual experiences in VOT feed in to a core domain-general representation of visual aesthetic appeal in the DMN. Whole-brain searchlight analyses identified additional prefrontal regions containing information relevant for appreciation of cultural artifacts (artwork and architecture) but not landscapes

Intuitive Cities: Pre-Reflective, Aesthetic and Political Aspects of Urban Design

Evidence affirms that aesthetic engagement patterns our movements, often with us barely aware. This invites an examination of pre-reflective engagement within cities and also aesthetic experience as a form of the pre-reflective. The invitation is amplified because design has political implications. For instance, it can draw people in or exclude them by establishing implicitly recognized public-private boundaries. The Value Sensitive Design school, which holds that artifacts embody ethical and political values, stresses some of this. But while emphasizing that design embodies implicit values, research in this field lacks sustained attention to largely unconscious background biases or values, rooted in cultural attitudes and personal interests, that lead theorists and planners—often too narrowly—to promote design organized around specific values such as defensibility. In examining these points, I draw on J. J. Gibson, a central figure for some writing on aesthetics and cities, and whom pragmatists and phenomenologists in turn influenced. Taking a cue from pragmatists in particular, I argue Gibson’s perceptual theory of affordances entails a theory of values, meaning our perception and therewith movements are inherently value-based. I advocate design that accounts for relatively constantly held values such as safety, while also handling the vast pluralism that exists and not crushing the aesthetic vibrancy of city life

The Embodiment of Architectural Experience:A Methodological Perspective on Neuro-Architecture

People spend a large portion of their time inside built environments. Research in neuro-architecture—the neural basis of human perception of and interaction with the surrounding architecture—promises to advance our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying this common human experience and also to inspire evidence-based architectural design principles. This article examines the current state of the field and offers a path for moving closer to fulfilling this promise. The paper is structured in three sections, beginning with an introduction to neuro-architecture, outlining its main objectives and giving an overview of experimental research in the field. Afterward, two methodological limitations attending current brain-imaging architectural research are discussed: the first concerns the limited focus of the research, which is often restricted to the aesthetic dimension of architectural experience; the second concerns practical limitations imposed by the typical experimental tools and methods, which often require participants to remain stationary and prevent naturalistic interaction with architectural surroundings. Next, we propose that the theoretical basis of ecological psychology provides a framework for addressing these limitations and motivates emphasizing the role of embodied exploration in architectural experience, which encompasses but is not limited to aesthetic contemplation. In this section, some basic concepts within ecological psychology and their convergences with architecture are described. Lastly, we introduce Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) as one emerging brain imaging approach with the potential to improve the ecological validity of neuro-architecture research. Accordingly, we suggest that combining theoretical and conceptual resources from ecological psychology with state-of-the-art neuroscience methods (Mobile Brain/Body Imaging) is a promising way to bring neuro-architecture closer to accomplishing its scientific and practical goals

The Aesthetic Perception of movement - Symmetry perception in Bharatanāṭyam dance.

openRecently the field of Neuroaesthetic has started exploring the aesthetic experience of observing bodies in movement. In this experiment we have used short, selected movements derived from an indian classical dance style called Bharatanāṭyam. Each movement is based on the instruction given by the Nāṭyaśāstra, an ancient treatise on indian dramaturgy. The aim of this experiment is to investigate the aesthetic appreciation of this foreign dance style to see if there is a cross-cultural preference for symmetry. The short movements were presented to participants who are non-experts in dance in random combinations. Some combinations were symmetrical: the same movement first on the right side and then repeated on the left side, as to create a “good continuation” sequence, some others were asymmetrical both regarding the side as well as for the type of movement. After watching each couple of movement the participant had to answer, by sliding a bar on the screen, four questions regarding: how much they liked the movement, how much symmetrical it was, how familiar it was with other dance forms they may know and, finally, how difficult they think it was to perform (the choreographic architecture). We predicted that, even if it’s an unknown dance style for the majority of people in the western countries, the subjects would tend to like more the symmetrical condition both regarding the side and the type of movement.Recently the field of Neuroaesthetic has started exploring the aesthetic experience of observing bodies in movement. In this experiment we have used short, selected movements derived from an indian classical dance style called Bharatanāṭyam. Each movement is based on the instruction given by the Nāṭyaśāstra, an ancient treatise on indian dramaturgy. The aim of this experiment is to investigate the aesthetic appreciation of this foreign dance style to see if there is a cross-cultural preference for symmetry. The short movements were presented to participants who are non-experts in dance in random combinations. Some combinations were symmetrical: the same movement first on the right side and then repeated on the left side, as to create a “good continuation” sequence, some others were asymmetrical both regarding the side as well as for the type of movement. After watching each couple of movement the participant had to answer, by sliding a bar on the screen, four questions regarding: how much they liked the movement, how much symmetrical it was, how familiar it was with other dance forms they may know and, finally, how difficult they think it was to perform (the choreographic architecture). We predicted that, even if it’s an unknown dance style for the majority of people in the western countries, the subjects would tend to like more the symmetrical condition both regarding the side and the type of movement

Do we enjoy what we sense and perceive?:A dissociation between aesthetic appreciation and basic perception of environmental objects or events

This integrative review rearticulates the notion of human aesthetics by critically appraising the conventional definitions, offerring a new, more comprehensive definition, and identifying the fundamental components associated with it. It intends to advance holistic understanding of the notion by differentiating aesthetic perception from basic perceptual recognition, and by characterizing these concepts from the perspective of information processing in both visual and nonvisual modalities. To this end, we analyze the dissociative nature of information processing in the brain, introducing a novel local-global integrative model that differentiates aesthetic processing from basic perceptual processing. This model builds on the current state of the art in visual aesthetics as well as newer propositions about nonvisual aesthetics. This model comprises two analytic channels: aesthetics-only channel and perception-to-aesthetics channel. The aesthetics-only channel primarily involves restricted local processing for quality or richness (e.g., attractiveness, beauty/prettiness, elegance, sublimeness, catchiness, hedonic value) analysis, whereas the perception-to-aesthetics channel involves global/extended local processing for basic feature analysis, followed by restricted local processing for quality or richness analysis. We contend that aesthetic processing operates independently of basic perceptual processing, but not independently of cognitive processing. We further conjecture that there might be a common faculty, labeled as aesthetic cognition faculty, in the human brain for all sensory aesthetics albeit other parts of the brain can also be activated because of basic sensory processing prior to aesthetic processing, particularly during the operation of the second channel. This generalized model can account not only for simple and pure aesthetic experiences but for partial and complex aesthetic experiences as well.</p

Architectural experience: Clarifying its central components and their relation to core affect with a set of first-person-view videos

When studying architectural experience in the lab, it is of paramount importance to use a proxy as close to real-world experience as possible. Whilst still images visually describe real spaces, and virtual reality allows for dynamic movement, each medium lacks the alternative attribute. To merge these benefits, we created and validated a novel dataset of valenced videos of first-person-view travel through built environments. This dataset was then used to clarify the relationship of core affect (valence and arousal) and architectural experience. Specifically, we verified the relationship between valence and fascination, coherence, and hominess - three key psychological dimensions of architectural experience which have previously been shown to explain aesthetic ratings of built environments. We also found that arousal is only significantly correlated with fascination, and that both are embedded in a relationship with spatial complexity and unusualness. These results help to clarify the nature of fascination, and to distinguish it from coherence and hominess when it comes to core affect. Moreover, these results demonstrate the utility of a video dataset of affect-laden spaces for understanding architectural experience

Apresentação de piano: comunicação musical e a experiência partilhada entre o músico e o público

Music is powerful as a social mode, and a music performance offers a compelling means of communication which reveals aspects of the performer’s personality and musicianship. A pianist’s creative imagination is the key driver giving music its emotional appeal, with the performance built on the score interpretation, which involves a fluid concept, so that each performer can offer a distinctive rendition. The soundtrack involves continuous interaction with the music, with musicians evaluating the quality and fit of the sounds with the dramatic concept of the score. The playing actions generating the sounds communicates the music’s structural and emotional features, with these actions increasing in amplitude with the pianist’s increasing skill and connection with the music. Although the aural aspect was previously considered core to the domain of music, the visual information also influences the observers’ perception of the music’s expressive intent, and this is important particularly for music-naïve audience members. The presence of observers during a performance provides a motivating factor for musicians, affecting the amplitude and intensity of movements which, in turn, increase the audience engagement with the playing. At this level of performance, skilled musicians sense the playing movements as intrinsically rewarding, and undergo a state of effortless attention and high arousal which generates in them a subjective state of optimal experience. Sensing the musician’s connection with the music engages the attention of audience members, forging a bond between them which results in neural activity in the same brain regions of both, enabling a sharing of the affective experience. Successful performance communication involves the performer capturing the imagination of an audience, and this review explores the different performance elements shaping the communication of music and conveying the music’s expressivity, and the features that affect observers and enhance their enjoyment of the music. The review concludes with an examination of the performance appraisal process.A música é um poderoso mecanismo social, e uma apresentação musical é um atraente meio de comunicação que revela aspectos da personalidade e musicalidade do artista. A imaginação criativa de um pianista é essencial para dar apelo emocional à música, com a apresentação sendo construída a partir de sua interpretação, o que envolve um conceito flexível, para que cada artista possa oferecer uma interpretação distinta. A trilha sonora envolve interação contínua com a música, com os músicos avaliando a qualidade e o ajuste dos sons ao conceito dramático da partitura. Os sons gerados pelas ações realizadas enquanto a música é tocada comunicam suas características estruturais e emocionais, aumentando a amplitude dessas ações ao passo em que a habilidade e a conexão do pianista com a música aumentam. Embora o aspecto aural fora anteriormente considerado fundamental para o domínio da música, a informação visual também influencia a percepção dos observadores sobre as intenções expressivas da mesma, e isto é importante especialmente para públicos mais ingênuos. A presença de observadores durante uma performance é uma motivação para os músicos, afetando a amplitude e intensidade dos movimentos que, por sua vez, aumentam o engajamento do público com a apresentação. Neste nível de apresentação, músicos qualificados sentem uma gratidão intrínseca enquanto tocam, entrando em um estado de atenção sem qualquer esforço e grande excitação, o que gera um estado subjetivo de experiência ideal. Sentir a conexão do artista com a música envolve a atenção da plateia, forjando um laço que resulta na atividade neural nas mesmas regiões cerebrais de ambos e permitindo uma partilha da experiência afetiva. Comunicação do desempenho bem-sucedido implica na captura da imaginação da plateia pelo artista, e esta análise explora os diferentes elementos da apresentação, dando forma à comunicação e transportando a expressividade da música e as características que afetam os observadores e melhoram sua apreciação da performance. O estudo conclui com uma análise do processo de avaliação da apresentação