Neuroaesthetics: neuroscientific theory and illustration from the arts

Neuroaesthetics received its formal definition in 2002 as the scientific study of the neural bases for the contemplation and creation of a work of art. The neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux has been engaged in this area of study since l988, notably in his book Raison et Plaisir of 1994. Currently, this field at large is in search of a neuronal interpretation of creativity. To this end, Changeux's neuronal workspace model (1998), as presented again in his 2002 book The Physiology of Truth, offers a comprehensive scheme for understanding the epigenetic dynamism of the artistic process and its network architecture. From her perspective in the humanities, the literary scholar Suzanne Nalbantian conjoins a few selected literary and artistic works of the twentieth-century to illustrate in concrete terms aspects of Changeux's workspace model. This interdisciplinary collaboration helps to focus on the memory component in the creative process of higher-level synthetic brain functioning.