Throughout history, artists and photographers who are also superb practitioners in colour, have often selected black and white for their creations. GD Schott considers why this might be, and the ...implications for understanding brain function.
The tondo, a circular work of art, comprises a geometry that is said to increase the visual concentration on the picture's centre, a concentration that is enhanced by a picture frame. The present ...contribution discusses these observations from the perspective of the psychologist and the art historian, notes the perceptual differences between circular and other shapes of pictures, and refers to studies including eye-tracking methods, neurophysiological experiments on the visual cortex in man and macaques, and consideration of ocular factors. These studies provide considerable support for the “Power of the Center” when viewing tondi.
Repair of complex fractures with bone loss requires a potent, space-filling intervention to promote regeneration of bone. We present a biomaterials-based strategy combining mesenchymal stromal cells ...(MSC) with a chitosan-collagen matrix to form modular microtissues designed for delivery through a needle to conformally fill cavital defects. Implantation of microtissues into a calvarial defect in the mouse showed that osteogenically pre-differentiated MSC resulted in complete bridging of the cavity, while undifferentiated MSC produced mineralized tissue only in apposition to native bone. Decreasing the implant volume reduced bone regeneration, while increasing the MSC concentration also attenuated bone formation, suggesting that the cell-matrix ratio is important in achieving a robust response. Conformal filling of the defect with microtissues in a carrier gel resulted in complete healing. Taken together, these results show that modular microtissues can be used to augment the differentiated function of MSC and provide an extracellular environment that potentiates bone repair.
Although typically associated with the Mannerist artistic style of the Renaissance, artists throughout history have created pictures and sculptures of humans depicted in an unrealistic and abnormally ...elongated form. The scientific basis for adopting this form of distortion is discussed here. First, probably subconsciously, artists have appreciated that the human form displays a symmetry which is often aesthetically pleasing. Second, perceived beauty is enhanced when the symmetrical image is elongated. There is evidence that the appeal of artworks which feature these characteristics can be attributed to their ease of cerebral processing, a view supported by functional MRI studies indicating there is an overlap between regions of the brain devoted to processing of symmetry and those devoted to appreciation of beauty.
Pictures created spontaneously by patients with brain disease often display impaired or diminished artistry, reflecting the patient's cerebral damage. This article explores the opposite: those ...pictures created in the face of brain disease that show enhanced or enduring artistry, and those that emerge for the first time in artistically naïve patients. After comments on background issues relating to the patient and the viewer, the paintings and drawings are considered in relation to the heterogeneous conditions in which this artistic creativity is seen. These conditions include various dementias-most notably frontotemporal lobar dementia, stroke, Parkinson's disease, autism and related disorders and psychiatric disease, epilepsy, migraine and trauma. In the discussion, it is argued that evidence of underlying brain dysfunction revealed by these pictures often rests on the abnormal context in which the pictures are created, or on changes in artistry demonstrated by a sequence of pictures. In the former, the compulsive element and sensory and emotional accompaniments are often important features; in the latter, evolving changes are evident, and have included depiction of increasing menace in portrayal of faces. The occurrence of synaesthesia, and its relation to creativity, are briefly discussed in respect of two unusual patients, followed by considering the role of the anterior and frontal lobes, mesolimbic connections and the right hemisphere. In at least some patients, impaired inhibition leading to paradoxical functional facilitation, with compensatory changes particularly in the right posterior hemisphere, is likely to be pivotal in enabling unusual artistry to emerge; preservation of language, however, is not a prerequisite. Many patients studied have been artists, and it appears possible that some of those with an artistic predisposition may be more likely to experience pathologically obsessive creativity. The discussion concludes that occasionally pictures created by these rare individuals unexpectedly prove to be an invaluable but little studied tool for investigating the dysfunctioning brain.
For over 2000 years, the pictorial line has been recognized as being fundamental to drawing and several other art forms. Yet pictorial lines present intriguing issues, three of which are considered ...here: lines very rarely exist in the natural world; there is no known part of the brain which “processes” lines; and, paradoxically, we often pay very little attention to the lines themselves, and they have even been viewed as “an imaginary idea”.
The study of empathy, a translation of the term 'Einfühlung', originated in 19th century Germany in the sphere of aesthetics, and was followed by studies in psychology and then neuroscience. During ...the past decade the links between empathy and art have started to be investigated, but now from the neuroscientific perspective, and two different approaches have emerged. Recently, the primacy of the mirror neuron system and its association with automaticity and imitative, simulated movement has been envisaged. But earlier, a number of eminent art historians had pointed to the importance of cognitive responses to art; these responses might plausibly be subserved by alternative neural networks. Focusing here mainly on pictures depicting pain and evoking empathy, both approaches are considered by summarizing the evidence that either supports the involvement of the mirror neuron system, or alternatively suggests other neural networks are likely to be implicated. The use of such pictures in experimental studies exploring the underlying neural processes, however, raises a number of concerns, and suggests caution is exercised in drawing conclusions concerning the networks that might be engaged. These various networks are discussed next, taking into account the affective and sensory components of the pain experience, before concluding that both mirror neuron and alternative neural networks are likelyto be enlisted in the empathetic response to images of pain. A somewhat similar duality of spontaneous and cognitive processes may perhaps also be paralleled in the creation of such images. While noting that some have repudiated the neuroscientific approach to the subject, pictures are nevertheless shown here to represent an unusual but invaluable tool in the study of pain and empathy.
The notion that vision results from light rays being emitted by the eyes, extramission, originated over 2,000 years ago, but was finally disproved by Kepler around 1600. Yet extramission continues to ...hold sway, not only in much popular thinking but also as some form of explanation for various visual phenomena. It is suggested that extramission today is a concept that concerns not the eyes and optics but gaze and perception.
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