360 GRADI MAGAZINE // March-April 2021

as phobia.
Any of our cognitive, social, loving, religious,
political, artistic experiences go
through the activation of specific brain
areas. Today, thanks to neuroimaging
technologies, it is possible to visualize
which areas of the brain are activated
or deactivated when a subject is exposed
to any of the activities described
above. Even the aesthetic experience is
subject to the laws that regulate brain
activities and the nervous structures
involved, so art can be considered as
an extension of the brain function. To
conclude, beyond the commercial phenomena
related to the art market that
determine the value of artistic artefacts,
Neuroaesthetics is allowing us to better
understand the effects that an artistic
experience, perceived as beautiful, has
on our brain. Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist
at University College London and
father of Neuroaesthetics, argued that
looking at a painting by Caravaggio (if
we like Caravaggio) is, for the brain, like
receiving a kiss; admiring a work of art
stimulates the same brain areas sensitive
to falling in love. His classic research
involved a large group of subjects whose
brain activity was detected through
functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) while viewing 28 paintings by
artists including Botticelli, Leonardo
Da Vinci, Cezanne and Monet. The study
found that the visualization of the
works of art had stimulated an increase
in dopamine, one of the hormones of
well-being, in the orbito-frontal cortex,
and that there was a greater activity
of the brain areas generally related to
falling in love and pleasure. deep (this
substance is associated with the use of
drugs as well as the feeling of love). In
subsequent studies he has shown that
our brain reacts in a very similar way
both when we are in love and when
we admire a work of art that we like,
the same areas are activated in the
two different situations. This is one of
the many proofs of how much art can
be useful within therapies for dealing
with serious psychopathologies such as
anxiety and depression. Zeki emphasized:
“... there have been great advances
in our understanding of what happens
inside our brains when we look at works
of art. We have recently discovered that
when we observe things that we consider
beautiful, there is an increase in activity
in the pleasure recognition centers of the
brain. There is a large supply of dopamine
in this area, also known as the “feel-good”
transmitter. Essentially the feel-good centers
are stimulated, similar to the states of
love and desire. The reaction was immediate”.
Traditionally, art has
always been associated
with beauty but
ever since, in 1917,
Marcel Duchamp presented
a urinal, which
he called La Fontana,
at an art exhibition, everyone admits
that, for something to be considered a
work of art, it need not be perceived as
beautiful. One of the most debated questions
in aesthetics is whether beauty
can be defined by objective parameters
or whether it depends entirely on
subjective factors. Although subjective
criteria play an essential role in everyone’s
aesthetic experiences, today we
can hypothesize that there are specific
principles with a biological basis that
can facilitate the perception of beauty.
In a study by the Parma group, directed
by Giacomo Rizzolatti, the presence of
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