Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

Neuroscience is a rapidly advancing and exciting field of study particularly focusing on the brain and nervous system. It incorporates understandings of physiology, anatomy, and biology in which art is often used to help gain a further understanding. 

Neuroscience advancing with today's technology

The actual study of neuroscience is a fairly new topic of study due to technology being able to advance this however, the idea dates back centuries. In the past it was very common to try and define consciousness by finding patterns and trends as to why humans do things the way they do. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher - also known as the father of psychology - who originally thought the thinking was done in the heart (Vensa). 

Aristotle - "Father of Psychology"

As time went on, technology developed and humans understanding grew, scientists have been able to develop a more complex and accurate representation of the brain. They correlate more with function of humans we see now. Back in this time art was used heavily to help illustrate certain ideas like mapping out area's of the brain they believed to respond to area's of life. Art certainly helped illustrate the brain further by separating out parts to then pass on the information for others to use. 

Mapping out the human brain in 1800's

UCLA has it's own brain mapping centre that is used to continuously find more details about the human brain. In particular using feelings, emotions and actions to identify why we do certain things and what they can mean in our lives. Involving the art side to neuroscience is important as it helps to give a visual perspective used to locate and identify more specific details of the brain.

UCLA brain mapping centre

Our world is continuously developing, creating new technologies through the use of art to help us understand more about our medical world. This relates to a lot of what we have learned about in previous weeks. Another example is an fMRI machine in which art creates images that are used to track the blood flow in certain area's of the brain. Through the representation of different colours we are able to understand parts of the brain that are experiencing higher rates of blood flow giving us more information about the brain functions. 

Example of fMRI machine results on blood flow

Neuroscientist Christopher deCharms (deCharms) gave a ted talk demonstrating a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity. Through the use of art and technology we have developed ways to understand the brain movement in 'real time' which for us is an advancement. This process used to months to receive data from but is now possible to get data straight away. This topic of neuroscience and art relates heavily back to content we have learnt in other weeks relating to technology, math, and medicine where the components add up to make something creative and innovative in our lives. 

Christopher deCharms - Ted talk

Sources: 

deCharms, Christopher. “A Look inside the Brain in Real Time.” TED, www.ted.com/talks/christopher_decharms_a_look_inside_the_brain_in_real_time#t-111251.  

Gardner, Howard. Art, Mind, and Brain. Basic Books, 1982. 

Louise Stanger Ed.D, LCSW. “Neuroscience: 5 Keys to Engagement & Recovery.” Thrive Global, 23 Apr. 2019, thriveglobal.com/stories/neuroscience-5-keys-to-engagement-recovery/.  

Wolpe, Zach. “Neuroscience Primer.” Medium, The Startup, 20 Sept. 2020, medium.com/swlh/neuroscience-primer-456bc7c6cb19. 

“Human Brain Diagram by FL Collection.” Fine Art America, fineartamerica.com/featured/human-brain-diagram-fl-collection.html. 

“Emotion.” GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog, www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/emotion#:~:text=Emotion%20is%20a%20subjective%20state,to%20react%20a%20certain%20way. 

“Aristotle.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle. 

“Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 May 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging.