Abstract Art frees our brain from the dominance of reality, enabling the brain to flow ...

Aviv, V.(2014)’What does the brain tell us about abstract art?’ Frontiers in human Neuroscience. Vol 8(51)Perspective Article.[Online] Available at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00085/full (Accessed 18/07.2017)

The salient point of the article that follows is that Abstract Art has new and exciting possibilities. It naturally falls outside of the parametres of the predictible, the norm, the way that is expected and I beleive it is from this unknown that we perhaps have so much to learn. "Abstract art may therefore encourage our brain to respond in a less restrictive and stereotypical manner, exploring new associations, activating alternative paths for emotions, and forming new possibly creative links in our brain."

'Art works are sensed and perceived via the same neuronal machinery and anatomical routes that were primarily developed for interacting with, and comprehending, “reality”. These mechanisms evolved in order for us to acquire and analyze sensory information from the world around us and, consequently, to successfully and adaptively behave in an everchanging environment (see the “Perception Action loop” theory in Tishby and Polani, 2011).

Being an efficient learning machine, our brain uses bidirectional (“top down” and “bottom up”) processing schemes and algorithms for visual scene analysis. Namely, we first build (predict) a tentative model, an optional representation, of the visual world and this model is then verified and updated with increased accuracy against the “evidence” presented by the sensory stimulus (Hochstein and Ahissar, 2002; Bar, 2007; Tishby and Polani, 2011). These ongoing bidirectional processes enable us to make quick and effective generalizations and decisions about the world.

,abstract art is perceived via the same system that was developed primarily in order to functionally represent real-world objects. This places abstract art in a unique position within visual processing—far from the natural (“survival”) role of that system. It is therefore intriguing to try and understand why we are attracted to abstract art. What does abstract art offer to the viewer’s mind?

We should not expect a unique brain activity related to abstract art as indeed was found by Kawabata and Zeki (2004) as well as by Vartanian and Goel (2004). To put it differently, it seems that we know that we view abstract art by realizing that what we view does not belong to any other specific category of art. Namely, we recognize abstract art by exclusion.

Abstract art, stylistic knowledge and experience all seems to reduce cortical brain activity as compared to the relevant controls (representational art, stylistic knowledge and novice, correspondingly). These results indicate that the analysis of abstract art evokes less focal brain activation.

A study by Vartanian and Goel (2004) which correlated the amount of brain activity with aesthetic preference, found that representational paintings were preferred over abstract as there were decreased activity in areas associated with reward, emotional valence and attention when observing the latter.

It has been claimed that during the processing of artworks, two different aspects take place—the processing of pictorial content and the processing of the artistic style

In an event related potential (ERP) study, Augustin et al. (2011) found that processing of style starts later and develops more slowly than the processing of content (50 ms vs. 10 ms, respectively). They attribute this time difference in processing of the artwork to the fact that classification of content is extremely over-learned by humans as part of daily object classification and recognition whereas style analysis is a visual task that many have hardly ever experienced. stylistic information might be processed as an abstract entity, which requires some high level processing, rather than a combination of low level embedding of features. This work also supports the notion that style specific information and art experience would facilitate and influence the perception of abstract art (more than of representational art). If this is indeed the case then abstract art, which exposes us mostly to the style of work and hardly to a significant content of it (as no particular objects are depicted), is being processed mostly via brain’s routes of style analysis; routes that are less familiar to, and less used by, most people. In other words, abstract art introduces us to unfamiliar (or less familiar) situation.

The work of Taylor et al.(2011)supports the notion that, while analyzing abstract art, the visual/perception system is less engaged with focal and converging gaze but rather to a more homogeneous gaze. Again, a less familiar situation in our daily experience.

Pictorial art analysis can be regarded as composed of three main processes; (i) the brains’ effort to analyze the pictorial content and style; (ii) the flood of associations evoked by it; and (iii) the emotional response it generates (Bhattacharya and Petsche, 2002; alsoseeFreedbergandGallese,2007)

But abstract art offers a particularly unique opportunity that is evoked by visual stimulus which is not object-related and, therefore, remote from our daily visual experience. This conclusion is supported by both the lack of specific brain region(s) for the processing of abstract art exclusively (Kawabata and Zeki, 2004) as well as by the eye tracking experiments (Taylor et al., 2011), demonstrating that in abstract art, the eye (brain) is “free” to scan the whole surface of the painting rather than “fall” mostly into well recognized salient features, as is the case when processing representational art. Abstract art may therefore encourage our brain to respond in a less restrictive and stereotypical manner, exploring new associations, activating alternative paths for emotions, and forming new possibly creative links in our brain.

The response to abstract art is expected to be more dependent on one’s particular inner state at a very specific moment, more so than while observing representational art (which more automatically activates the “survival”-related brain system). At some instances, a particular abstract artwork might evoke strong association and emotional response than in other times, when the inner state of the viewer is less approachable, less amenable to processing abstract art. A related prediction is that abstract art would activate more of the default system in the brain, associated with inner-oriented processing. This prediction goes along with the findings of Cela-Conde et al. (2013), which demonstrate the involvement of the default mode network during the later phase of aesthetic appreciation.

In contrast, representative art would activate the extrinsic system more powerfully, as this system is associated with processing information arriving from the external environment (Golland et al., 2008).'

In conclusion Supported by recent experimental studies, I claim that abstract art frees our brain from the dominance of reality, enabling the brain to flow within its inner states, create new emotional and cognitive associations and activate brain-states that are otherwise harder to access.