Up the nose of the beholder? Aesthetic perception in olfaction as a decision-making process

Is the sense of smell a source of aesthetic perception? Traditional philosophical aesthetics has centered on vision and audition but eliminated smell for its subjective and inherently affective character. This article dismantles the myth that olfaction is an unsophisticated sense. It makes a case for olfactory aesthetics by integrating recent insights in neuroscience with traditional expertise about flavor and fragrance assessment in perfumery and wine tasting. My analysis concerns the importance of observational refinement in aesthetic experience. I argue that the active engagement with stimulus features in perceptual processing shapes the phenomenological content, so much so that the perceptual structure of trained smelling varies significantly from naive smelling. In a second step, I interpret the processes that determine such perceptual refinement in the context of neural decision-making processes, and I end with a positive outlook on how research in neuroscience can be used to benefit philosophical aesthetics

Up the nose of the beholder? Aesthetic perception in olfaction as a decision-making process

Is the sense of smell a source of aesthetic perception? Traditional philosophical aesthetics has centered on vision and audition but eliminated smell for its subjective and inherently affective character. This article dismantles the myth that olfaction is an unsophisticated sense. It makes a case for olfactory aesthetics by integrating recent insights in neuroscience with traditional expertise about flavor and fragrance assessment in perfumery and wine tasting. My analysis concerns the importance of observational refinement in aesthetic experience. I argue that the active engagement with stimulus features in perceptual processing shapes the phenomenological content, so much so that the perceptual structure of trained smelling varies significantly from naive smelling. In a second step, I interpret the processes that determine such perceptual refinement in the context of neural decision-making processes, and I end with a positive outlook on how research in neuroscience can be used to benefit philosophical aesthetics

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

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

A multicomponential examination of tennis players’ emotional responses to music

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The principal aim of this research programme was to examine multiple components of competitive tennis players’ emotional responses to pre-performance music. To this end, four objectives were defined: First, to develop a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) of players’ use of music to manipulate emotional state; second, to examine the impact of altering music tempo and intensity on players’ affective and behavioural responses; third, to identify neural origins for these phenomena; and fourth, to elucidate the role of motoneuron excitability in behavioural responses observed. These objectives were realised in four interrelated studies. First, 14 players provided quantitative and qualitative interview, questionnaire, and diary data to detail their use of personally emotive music; a grounded theory and associated model were consequently developed to facilitate future research and practice. Participants used music to attain five broad emotional states, including psyched-up; this was associated with faster tempi and louder intensities (volumes). Study 2 was conceived to examine the effects of manipulating these variables on 54 players’ affective and behavioural states, using measures based on Russell’s (1980) affective circumplex and reaction times (RTs). Faster tempi elicited higher valence and arousal, loud intensity yielded higher arousal and shorter RTs; and higher arousal was associated with shorter RTs. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was utilised in Study 3 to identify neural bases for 12 participants’ emotional responses to the same music manipulations; emotion-processing, visuomotor and sensorimotor structures were activated under high-arousal conditions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography were used in Study 4 to investigate changes in 10 participants’ corticospinal excitability as a result of listening to purposively selected music; optimised music elicited higher arousal and reduced corticospinal response latencies. The foremost contribution of this thesis is to show that music variables may be carefully selected and/or manipulated to maximise performance-facilitating emotional responses to music in tennis