Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

It may seem surprising at first to learn that sound is one of the more effective aesthetic experiences to reduce and alleviate stress,

The DMN is a filter for what you think is beautiful or not beautiful, memorable or not, meaningful or not, and it’s what helps to make the arts and aesthetics a very personal experience for each of us.

And the auditory nerve works both ways: It can signal your ear to dampen outside noise and focus on what the brain perceives as an important sound, which explains why it’s so easy to accidentally startle someone who is absorbed in reading a book or looking at a piece of art. They literally didn’t hear you coming.

Those who have an aesthetic mindset share four key attributes: (1) a high level of curiosity, (2) a love of playful, open-ended exploration, (3) keen sensory awareness, and (4) a drive to engage in creative activities as a maker and/or beholder.

aesthetic mindset is simply the ways in which you are aware of the arts and aesthetics around you, and how you bring them into your life with purpose.

Ritual and routine are important, but the human brain also craves novelty and surprise to flourish.

“It’s reframing art-making as a process of becoming yourself, and the things that you’re making along the way are just the artifact of that process,”

The stories you tell yourself day in and day out matter. Your brain loves stories, and they shape how you contextualize yourself.

Architecture critic and author Sarah Williams Goldhagen believes that the future of architecture lies in harnessing the new knowledge of neueroaesthetics to build environments that better support human feelings and well-being.