On the Role of Mentalizing Processes in Aesthetic Appreciation: An ERP Study

Abstract

We used event-related brain potentials to explore the impact of mental perspective taking on processes of aesthetic appreciation of visual art. Participants (non-experts) were first presented with information about the life and attitudes of a fictitious artist. Subsequently, they were cued trial-wise to make an aesthetic judgment regarding an image depicting a piece of abstract art either from their own perspective or from the imagined perspective of the fictitious artist [i.e., theory of mind (ToM) condition]. Positive self-referential judgments were made more quickly and negative self-referential judgments were made more slowly than the corresponding judgments from the imagined perspective. Event-related potential analyses revealed significant differences between the two tasks both within the preparation period (i.e., during the cue-stimulus interval) and within the stimulus presentation period. For the ToM condition we observed a relative centro-parietal negativity during the preparation period (700-330 ms preceding picture onset) and a relative centro-parietal positivity during the stimulus presentation period (700-1100 ms after stimulus onset). These findings suggest that different subprocesses are involved in aesthetic appreciation and judgment of visual abstract art from one's own vs. from another person's perspective.

Keywords: aesthetic appreciation; arts; event-related potential (ERP); experimental aesthetics; mental chronometry; neuroaesthetics; theory of mind (ToM).

FIGURE 1

Examples of stimuli used in the study. Images by © Reinhard Scheiblich.

FIGURE 2

Schematic demonstration of the experimental procedure.

FIGURE 3

Grand-average ERP waveforms, referenced to the nose, elicited at nine scalp electrodes and two EOG channels during preparation period time-locked to picture onset. Voltage map representing the difference between the non-ToM and ToM condition during the time interval 0.700 to 0.330 s before picture onset. Illustrated are waveforms for the two conditions (non-ToM, ToM) and the difference wave (non-ToM-ToM). The time interval used to plot the voltage map is indicated by a gray shade (shown at electrode with highest mean amplitude difference).

FIGURE 4

Grand-average ERP waveforms, referenced to the nose, elicited at nine scalp electrodes and two EOG channels in response to the onset of an abstract art image, time-locked to picture onset. Illustrated are waveforms for the two conditions (non-ToM, ToM) and the difference wave (non-ToM-ToM). The time interval used to plot the voltage map is indicated by a gray shade (shown at electrode with highest mean amplitude difference). The voltage map represents the difference between the non-ToM and ToM condition during the time interval 0.700 to 1.100 s after picture onset.