**3. The pursuit of objective beauty in neuroaesthetics**

There is no doubt that neuroscience has made great advances in the knowledge of the brain. Much of the success of its research is due to the interdisciplinary approach that scientists have decided to take when it comes to studying the functions of the brain. In the 1960s, several lines of research converged, culminating in the publication of *The Neurosciences: A Study Program* (1966). This work was the result of 4 weeks of lectures organized by Fran O. Schmitt, which addressed a wide range of aspects of interest, constituting what later on would be known as neuroscience [6].

Almost 30 years passed before a researcher decided to focus his neuroscience research on the aesthetic perception [7]. In 1999, Semir Zeki published his investigations on art and the brain in individual articles [8, 9]. In addition to opening a new field of research, he coined the term neuroaesthetics and laid its foundations. In these articles, Zeki made a parallelism between the functioning of neurons and that of artists, especially with regard to the visual grasping of the world. According to Zeki, the work of artists shows externally the inner workings of the brain. The neuronal work breaks down visual information into color, luminosity, and motion, and then reconstructs the figure. In the same way, artists decompose the information received and then translate it into their works. For this reason, it can be said that"the function of art is therefore an extension of the function of the brain ‐ the seeking of knowledge in an ever changing world"[8].

In summary, we can say that the empiricist approach led to the consideration that beauty could only be perceived by the senses, thus reducing it to a matter of mere intellectual plea‐ sure, which in turn provoked a relativistic consideration of beauty. This analysis had a great impact, first of all, among philosophers who reflected on beauty, especially Immanuel Kant. Later, both the enlightened and the romantic spirits, with their interest in the historical, progressively moved the reflection on beauty from a universal concept to concrete artistic work. However, while the post‐Hegelian line focuses on studies on the history of art, the Anglo‐Saxon world continues the research on the possibilities of perception and knowl‐ edge. At this point, it is important to mention the work of the art historian Ernst Gombrich, who investigated much about the laws of perception to develop his artistic theories, as can be seen in studies such as *The Image of the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial* 

In particular, it can be said that the legacy of Hume influenced English empiricist writers who were nourishing the associationist psychology, especially [5]. The Humean stance on how ideas combine in our minds influenced them decisively. Associationism will be taken up in particular by James Mill and John Stuart Mill, who laid the foundations of empirical and experimental psychology. The psychic processes, according to these authors, come one after the other, following certain laws of connection. Such laws could be quantified and described, which is why they consider that mental states can be measured to some extent. On one hand, these theories will influence the psychology of the Gestalt, centered on the laws of association and, on the other, they will influence neuroscience. Therefore, it is not surprising that when the techniques of brain and neurological analysis have been developed, the question of beauty

There is no doubt that neuroscience has made great advances in the knowledge of the brain. Much of the success of its research is due to the interdisciplinary approach that scientists have decided to take when it comes to studying the functions of the brain. In the 1960s, several lines of research converged, culminating in the publication of *The Neurosciences: A Study Program* (1966). This work was the result of 4 weeks of lectures organized by Fran O. Schmitt, which addressed a wide range of aspects of interest, constituting what later on would be known as

Almost 30 years passed before a researcher decided to focus his neuroscience research on the aesthetic perception [7]. In 1999, Semir Zeki published his investigations on art and the brain in individual articles [8, 9]. In addition to opening a new field of research, he coined the term neuroaesthetics and laid its foundations. In these articles, Zeki made a parallelism between the functioning of neurons and that of artists, especially with regard to the visual grasping of the world. According to Zeki, the work of artists shows externally the inner workings of the brain. The neuronal work breaks down visual information into color, luminosity, and motion, and then reconstructs the figure. In the same way, artists decompose the information received

*Representation* [4].

86 Perception of Beauty

has been formulated again.

neuroscience [6].

**3. The pursuit of objective beauty in neuroaesthetics**

Zeki's contributions on the neuronal behavior were well received and the comparison with art seemed to open new lines of investigation. In 2003, Semir Zeki and Hideaki Kawabata per‐ formed a relevant research on how the brain perceives beauty [10]. In this case, they were no longer doing a comparison with the artist, but they were trying to see how something more complex, beauty, is perceived. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to perform the study and find out if there were specific areas of the brain that were activated in the subjects when they appreciated paintings that they had considered beauti‐ ful. At first, in order to grasp the concept of beauty for each person, they offered them a large number of pictorial works that the subjects had to classify as beautiful, neutral or ugly. Subsequently, the process was repeated by analyzing it with functional magnetic resonance techniques.

Through this technique, they verified that the vision of a picture (classified as beautiful or not) does not activate the visual area of the whole brain but only specialized areas for the process and perception of that particular category of stimulus (such as portrait or landscape). This demonstration implicitly implies that at the basis of aesthetic judgments lies a functional specialization. Thus, what Kawabata and Zeki mean is that to be judged as beautiful, the painting must be processed by an area specialized in that particular type of work. Predictably, they also found that the judgment of paintings as beautiful (or not) is correlated with specific brain structures, mainly with the orbitofrontal cortex and motor cortex. The results of this research showed that although it is not possible to determine what beauty consists of in neu‐ ronal terms, we can know the zones of activation or increase of the neuronal activity when perceiving beauty:

*"We cannot be said to have been able to determine what constitutes beauty in neural terms. Instead, the more meaningful question for both would currently seem to be the Kantian question outlined in the INTRODUCTION, namely what are the conditions implied by the existence of the phenomenon of beauty (or its absence) and of consciousness (or its absence) and what are the presuppositions that give validity to our esthetic judgments. In esthetics, the answer to both questions must be an activation of the brain's reward system with a certain intensity" (1704)* [10]*.*

The work of Professor Zeki has stimulated many neurologists to perform different investiga‐ tions on the functions of the brain and the perception of beauty or art. Among the researchers who have had the most success in this line, V. Ramachandran stands out although he approaches it from a substantially different point of view. While up to now art was seen as a phenomenon that helped to explain the mechanisms of the brain, Ramachandran believes that art is a phe‐ nomenon that can actually be explained by the brain.

In fact, Ramachandran goes a step further and tries to explain, from neuroscience, what art is and which are the biological functions it has had in human beings from the evolutionary point of view. It is worth pausing here to see how the Indian professor starts from questioning how beauty is generated and which brain mechanisms are involved in the appreciation of beauty but then goes to stipulate universal laws of art.

In"The Science of Art" (1999), Ramachandran tries to explain that the task of art is not to faithfully reproduce reality but to transform it [11]. The question is to determine which transformations are effective and why. In this sense, Ramachandran focuses on determin‐ ing the mechanisms that artists use to recreate reality and make it pleasing to the viewer. People usually consider that the creations of the artists are the result of their free creativity but what if in fact they are the product of cerebral mechanisms and fruit of the evolution? For Ramachandran, our taste for certain forms responds to evolutionary questions. He thinks that we value those forms positively because they have been useful for us throughout evolution. If the premise is true, it should be possible to establish universal rules of art. These rules, in turn, would explain the pleasant stimulation we find in art and why we value beauty.

In this sense, Ramachandran dares to propose eight universal laws of art: the peak shift prin‐ ciple, the isolating a single module, the contrast extraction, the perceptual grouping, the sym‐ metry, the perceptual problem solving, the visual metaphors and the generic viewpoint. In later works, the order changes and adds some more laws (grouping, peak shift, contrast, isolation, peekaboo or perceptual problem solving, abhorrence of coincidences, orderliness, symmetry and metaphor) [12]. However, the explanation of the laws does not change sub‐ stantially. A detailed explanation of these principles will enable us to better understand the current approaches to neuroaesthetics.

First, the peak shift principle refers to the exaggerations or intensifications of certain parts of the work of art, made with the purpose of getting our attention. Based on ethology, Ramachandran considers that just as exaggeratedly large peaks attract the attention of birds, artists also exaggerate different parts of their works so that we focus attention on them. Another way artists get our attention is the modular isolation (isolating a single module). Since our brain cannot concentrate on all parts at the same time, isolating an element helps to focus the brain's attention. This would also explain why in art, sometimes, sketches work better than sharply defined images that require too much attention. For example, cartoonists or landscapers highlight particular features of what they see and remove irrelevant ones. The viewers' attention is drawn toward the important information and, as a result, there is an amplification of the limbic system activation and reinforcement. Also related to the atten‐ tion is the law of contrast (contrast extraction), which refers to a sudden change of one of the elements: light, color, structure, etc. The contrast reinforces attention because the greater the contrast in the parts of the whole work, the greater is the appreciation of the elements. Naturally, this law also has an evolutionary explanation. According to Ramachandran, when we were hominids, we needed to distinguish the fruits at a great distance, and the ones that are best distinguished are those that cause a greater contrast between the trees. Therefore, the persistence of this law is due to a question of survival.

Indeed, the question of survival for the species and thus the evolutionary question is one of the key elements in understanding Ramachandran's theory. In this line, therefore, the law of grouping (perceptual grouping) can be explained. When we are confronted with some frag‐ mented representation, the brain has to regroup the parts and make a single definite figure. The brain finds pleasure every time it performs this operation. The perceptive regrouping, an instinctive brain process that was generated when we were hunters in the jungle, is a method widely used in the different arts.

Clearer still is the case of the law of symmetry. Symmetry, in the first place, would have allowed us, always in an evolutionary key, to distinguish the parts of a person and establish their importance very quickly. Secondly, lack of symmetry is usually due to malformations or illnesses, so it indicates the poor health of the person. This information would have been of great help for the reproduction and survival of the species. Although today is not a necessary condition for pairing, we still find greater pleasure in what is symmetrical.

In"The Science of Art" (1999), Ramachandran tries to explain that the task of art is not to faithfully reproduce reality but to transform it [11]. The question is to determine which transformations are effective and why. In this sense, Ramachandran focuses on determin‐ ing the mechanisms that artists use to recreate reality and make it pleasing to the viewer. People usually consider that the creations of the artists are the result of their free creativity but what if in fact they are the product of cerebral mechanisms and fruit of the evolution? For Ramachandran, our taste for certain forms responds to evolutionary questions. He thinks that we value those forms positively because they have been useful for us throughout evolution. If the premise is true, it should be possible to establish universal rules of art. These rules, in turn,

In this sense, Ramachandran dares to propose eight universal laws of art: the peak shift prin‐ ciple, the isolating a single module, the contrast extraction, the perceptual grouping, the sym‐ metry, the perceptual problem solving, the visual metaphors and the generic viewpoint. In later works, the order changes and adds some more laws (grouping, peak shift, contrast, isolation, peekaboo or perceptual problem solving, abhorrence of coincidences, orderliness, symmetry and metaphor) [12]. However, the explanation of the laws does not change sub‐ stantially. A detailed explanation of these principles will enable us to better understand the

First, the peak shift principle refers to the exaggerations or intensifications of certain parts of the work of art, made with the purpose of getting our attention. Based on ethology, Ramachandran considers that just as exaggeratedly large peaks attract the attention of birds, artists also exaggerate different parts of their works so that we focus attention on them. Another way artists get our attention is the modular isolation (isolating a single module). Since our brain cannot concentrate on all parts at the same time, isolating an element helps to focus the brain's attention. This would also explain why in art, sometimes, sketches work better than sharply defined images that require too much attention. For example, cartoonists or landscapers highlight particular features of what they see and remove irrelevant ones. The viewers' attention is drawn toward the important information and, as a result, there is an amplification of the limbic system activation and reinforcement. Also related to the atten‐ tion is the law of contrast (contrast extraction), which refers to a sudden change of one of the elements: light, color, structure, etc. The contrast reinforces attention because the greater the contrast in the parts of the whole work, the greater is the appreciation of the elements. Naturally, this law also has an evolutionary explanation. According to Ramachandran, when we were hominids, we needed to distinguish the fruits at a great distance, and the ones that are best distinguished are those that cause a greater contrast between the trees. Therefore, the

Indeed, the question of survival for the species and thus the evolutionary question is one of the key elements in understanding Ramachandran's theory. In this line, therefore, the law of grouping (perceptual grouping) can be explained. When we are confronted with some frag‐ mented representation, the brain has to regroup the parts and make a single definite figure. The brain finds pleasure every time it performs this operation. The perceptive regrouping, an instinctive brain process that was generated when we were hunters in the jungle, is a method

would explain the pleasant stimulation we find in art and why we value beauty.

current approaches to neuroaesthetics.

88 Perception of Beauty

persistence of this law is due to a question of survival.

widely used in the different arts.

In respect to the other laws, the question of evolution, although present, is not so explicit. In both the perceptual "problem solving" and in the generic viewpoint, Ramachandran places the emphasis on the aesthetic question of perception. In this sense, the perceptual "problem solving" refers to the fact that we find more attractive what we have to reveal or discover than what is presented to us explicitly. Although it seems paradoxical, we are attracted by that which is hidden because concealment is considered as an enigma and stimulates our brain to solve it, since it finds pleasure in its resolution.

The same is true for the law of metaphors or visual games. As in the previous law, here the brain finds greater pleasure when it finds relationships between different elements and it rewards whatever is useful for our survival. Finally, generic viewpoint alludes to the fact that the human eye has little regard for visual coincidences; it finds repetition irrelevant since it has already stored such information. It explains our aversion to coincidences or, in other words, our preference for the unique point of view.

These are the eight laws that according to Ramachandran and Hirstein are behind the artistic practice and the aesthetic pleasure. Although they themselves affirm that they form only a framework of understanding and recognize that they do not explain the essence of art, they do not have any qualms about affirming that these laws are always present in art:

*"We recognize, of course, that much of art is idiosyncratic, ineffable and defies analysis but would argue that whatever component of art is lawful —however small— emerges either from exploiting these principles or from a playful and deliberate violation of them" (34)* [11]*.*

Ramachandran has continued to investigate visual perception and brain activity, and his research has been of great interest to neuroaesthetics. However, it must also be noted that some of his reflections have been strongly criticized among his colleagues, since they suppose a reductionism of both aesthetic and artistic consideration. Although he tried to answer to those critiques [13] he has not yet given a good account of all of them.

From the point of view of neuroaesthetics, as well as from aesthetics in general, you may find objections to these approaches. Firstly, I consider that these laws are reductionist from the neuroscientific point of view since they present the artistic task as a simple consequence of the evolutionary process of the species. This interpretation tends to support all its claims on adap‐ tive terms in a way that is not falsifiable since one could always see in each new artistic feature an issue of adaptation. In this way, it runs the risk of nullifying freedom and creativity, insofar as everything would respond to innate traits that we do not control when performing an action or judging it. It should also be noted that it does not take into account the role of culture.

Although the brain has not changed much in its structure since the Upper Paleolithic, we do not know whether the mind is simply the functional translation of the structure of the brain. It could be that the functioning of the mind is much more versatile, and the technological and cultural development might have influenced in it. In this area, the work of Frederick Turner occupies a prominent place. In spite of sustaining an evolutionary vision, he includes the influence of culture. He understands the evolution of our sense of beauty as a "nonlinear feedback between cultural and biological determinants" (103) [14]. That is, we have an aesthetic sense designed to perceive the beauty of objects that derives meaning from a flow of both biological patrons and cultural systems that deal with forms of order such as poetic meter or visual patterns.

Nonetheless, several neuroscientists have criticized evolutionary adaptation. For example, Stephen Jay Gould criticizes adaptationism for being"panglossian"[15]. Other more recent stud‐ ies in neurology show the dysfunctionality of some of the starting points of Ramachandran's investigations, such as the theory"one area one skill"to analyze the brain. Against this, they explain that sight is not in one area and smell in another, but everything is interconnected. Everything influences everything and, therefore, it is not enough to analyze the visual part to account for the whole [16, 17].

Secondly, Ramachandran's consideration of beauty can be called reductionist, which is illu‐ minating to understand the process of psychologization of beauty mentioned above. Theories like those of Ramachandran consider that the characterization of beauty depends on the inter‐ nal impact provoked in the subject. That is, beauty has been identified with the mere feeling of pleasure caused in the brain by some objects. In contrast with the approaches of the begin‐ ning of modernity, these theories speak no longer of the intellectual powers in general, but they have taken a step further: we now have greater scientific knowledge that allows us to determine the zones in the brain in which the feeling of aesthetic pleasure occurs. It is true that we can now determine which areas of the brain are activated when beauty is perceived and even the pleasure those areas can experience but that does not tell us what beauty is. It explains how our brain works in the face of specific stimuli, but does not even fully explain why we find pleasure in them.

The two previous premises result in a reductionist assimilation of art and beauty. Although Ramachandran understands"pretty"in a positive way, he generally does not take into account the important distinctions between beautiful, pretty or sublime. Nor does he note that"pretty," in the sense of pleasant, was a term that artists, like Picasso (who he mentions), wanted to get rid of. Precisely, they wanted to get rid of it to show that art is much more than a mere pretext for complacency, an attitude which they considered merely bourgeois. Due to this reduction, he is also unable to explain the beauty of what is ugly or how the existence of art that is not beautiful is possible or how we can like artworks such as Goya's black paintings. Moreover, since Ramachandran's analysis focuses on visual perception, his conclusions are only useful for visual arts. From this point of view, it is not possible to justify the fact that we can enjoy the representation of evil and consider good literary works such as *Les Fleurs du mal* by Baudelaire or *On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts* of Thomas de Quincey. In the same way, this reductionism can say very little of the pleasure found in sad music [18].

Finally, the enunciation of these eight laws assumes that all art is based on them, which would allow us to speak of conditions to determine what art is as well as objective parameters for artistic beauty, as Hume already tried. Although these objectives are not in the scope of the Indian teacher, the truth is that from his theses, we can deduct the possibility of distinguish‐ ing the characteristics of art and, more specifically, of beautiful art. However, I consider that although neuroscientific discoveries provide important insight into how the brain perceives beauty, the enunciation of the eight laws is reductionist and problematic. The consideration of what art is and its relation with beauty is much more complicated than neuroaesthet‐ ics can claim today. Therefore, in the last section of this chapter, I would like to compare Ramachandran's statements with those of one of the most important philosophers of art, Arthur Danto.
