The Tell-Tale Brain - Neuroscience and Art

Artists who are also science geeks like me will find The Tell-Tale Brain by V. S. Ramachandran incredibly interesting. It is the most eye-opening book I’ve read in decades! The author trained as a physician. He is also a noted researcher holding a PhD from Cambridge. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego and adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute.

Written for the lay person, The Tell-Tale Brain explores concepts as far ranging as: “what makes humans unique; what is consciousness, and are there brain structures which have evolved to give us an aesthetic sense”?

In the past two decades neuroscience has identified and mapped many of the structures and pathways in the brain. These recent discoveries have allowed the science of the mind (perception, emotion, cognition, and intelligence) to finally “advance beyond the Bronze Age!” One example: humans have as many as 30 visual areas in our cortex, other animals have half as many. Why? Our brains are also rich in “mirror neurons”, cells that let us “experience” someone else’s point of view…probably a pre-cursor to true language!

While the entire book is mind-blowing, the chapters that deal with aesthetics are particularly interesting for the artist. Ramachandran postulates nine “laws of aesthetics”:

1. Grouping

2. Peak shift

3. Contrast

4. Isolation

5. Peekaboo, or perceptual problem-solving

6. Abhorrence of coincidence

7. Orderliness

8. Symmetry

9. Metaphor

Ramachandran uses various styles of art as examples. He asks the question, “what brain structures have been re-purposed to underlie each aesthetic principle?” For example, Gestalt psychologist discovered the law of grouping early in the 20^th century. Look at this example.

At first it seems to be a set of random splotches but if we continue to stare for several seconds, we start to group some of the splotches together. We see a Dalmatian dog sniffing the ground. “Our brains glue the dog splotches together to form a single object that is clearly delineated from the shadows of leaves around it.” While this effect is well known, scientists have ignored the fact that the “aha” moment when we recognize the object is pleasurable.

Ramachandran postulates that there is great survival benefit in grouping; he gives the example of a lion hiding behind bushes so that only splotches of yellow fur are visible through the foliage. He states, “Your brain says (in effect), what’s the likelihood that all those splotches are the same color by coincidence? So, let’s glue them together to see what it is. Aha! Oops! It’s a lion---run!”

The concept of peak shift is even more interesting for the artist. Our brains tend to exaggerate stimuli. Ramachandran mentions the Sanskrit word rasa, which loosely translates as “capturing the very essence of something.” He points to an experiment in which rats are trained to discriminate a rectangle from a square (food is always behind the rectangle.) When presented with a longer, skinnier rectangle the trained rat will actually prefer the new shape to the one it was trained on! The rat has learned a rule – “rectangularity” – rather than a specific prototype. The new shape has even greater “rasa”. The rat brain thinks “Wow, what a rectangle!”

In art this tendency pays off! Look at this bronze sculpture of the Indian goddess Parvati from the Chola period.

Larger breasts and hips, an impossibly narrow waist, and a pose of extreme contrapposto create the rasa of femininity. If medieval Hindu art is not your cup of tea, these pieces by the master painter, Dan Gerhartz also embody the very essence of feminine grace and beauty.

Reflection