HOW THE BRAIN CREATES YOUR TASTE IN ART

By Emily Velasco, California Institute of Technology FEBRUARY

27, 2023

Firtst published on medicalxpress.com

Ithas been said that there is no accounting for taste. But what if taste can actually be accounted for, and what if the things doing the accounting are the neural networks inside your brain?

In a new paper published in Nature Communications, a team of Caltech researchers show how they have revealed the neural basis for aesthetic preferences in humans using a combination of machine learning and brain-scanning equipment.

The work took place in the lab of John O’Doherty, Caltech’s Fletcher Jones Professor of Decision Neuroscience, and builds on research published by that lab in 2021. In that previous research, scientists trained a computer to predict volunteers’ taste in art by feeding it data about which paintings the volunteers liked and which they disliked. With enough training, the computer became adept at correctly guessing if a person would like a Monet or a Rothko, for example.

That act of liking or disliking a piece of art seems so innate and occurs so instantly and seamlessly in our brains that few of us have probably taken the time to wonder why or how it happens, but aesthetic preferences have been the subject of philosophical discussions for hundreds of years.

“When you see a picture, you decide immediately if you like it or not, but if you think about it, this is really complicated because the input is very complex,” says lead author Kiyohito Iigaya, formerly of Caltech and now with Columbia University. “This is actually a very open question, and we haven’t really known how the brain manages to do it. So, we were wondering if we could understand it using a computational modeling method.”

That method involved having volunteers rate paintings (as many as a thousand) over the course of four days while their brains were scanned with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. Those brain scans and the volunteers’ ratings of the paintings were fed into a machine-learning algorithm, along with the output of a neural net trained to examine the paintings for qualities like contrast, hue, dynamics, and concreteness (whether the painting is abstract or realistic).

The data the team collected showed that areas within the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual input, are responsible for analyzing those qualities. An area in the front of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is responsible for assigning a subjective value to them. Basically, the brain breaks a piece of art down into its essential qualities, and then decides whether those qualities are pleasing or not. This is more or less the same way the brain decides if it likes food or not, according to another study conducted by the O’Doherty lab. That study found that the brain analyzes a food according to its protein, fat, carbohydrates, and vitamin content, and then determines if those qualities are pleasing.

“What they found is that the brain integrates those different nutritional features to produce the overall liking of food,” Iigaya says. “That’s actually an inspiration for our work.”

In their paper, the researchers say their findings suggest that this “value construction” system may be widespread throughout the brain and may explain many kinds of preferences.

“I think it’s amazing that this very simple computational model can explain large variations in preferences for us,” Iigaya says.

The paper describing their research, titled, “Neural mechanisms underlying the hierarchical construction of perceived aesthetic value,” appeared in the January 24 issue of Nature Communications.

Firtst published on dailymail.co.uk

RoaldDahl once told painter Francis Bacon that he ‘hoped to God’ his publishers would not change his work, and vowed to send the ‘enormous crocodile’ - one of his characters - to gobble up any who did.

‘I’ve warned my publishers that if they later on so much as change a single comma in one of my books, they will never see another word from me. Never!’ Dahl is reported to have said.

‘When I am gone, if that happens, then I’ll wish mighty Thor knocks very hard on their heads with his Mjolnir. Or I will send along the ‘enormous crocodile’ to gobble them up.’

The comments, uncovered by The Guardian, were recorded by Barry Joule, a friend of Bacon who accompanied the pair on a visit to Dahl’s Buckinghamshire residence in 1982.

Bacon was said to have heartily agreed with Dahl’s sentiment, adding: ‘There must be no changes to an artist’s original work when he is dead for any reason whatsoever.’

The revelation comes as publisher Penguin Random House announced on Friday it will publish ‘classic’ unexpurgated versions of Dahl’s children’s novels after it received criticism for cuts and rewrites that it said were intended to make the books suitable for modern readers.

Along with the new editions, the company said 17 of Dahl’s books would be published in their original form later this year as ‘The Roald Dahl Classic Collection’ so ‘readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.’ The move followed a storm of criticism of scores of changes made to ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and other much- loved classics for recent editions published under the company’s Puffin children’s label, in which passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered.

Augustus Gloop, Charlie’s gluttonous antagonist in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ - originally published in 1964 - became ‘enormous’ rather than ‘enormously fat.’ In ‘Witches,’ an ‘old hag’ became an ‘old crow,’ and a supernatural female posing as an ordinary woman may be a ‘top scientist or running a business’ instead of a ‘cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman.’

In ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ the word ‘black’ was removed from a description of the ‘murderous, brutal-looking’ tractors.

The Roald Dahl Story Company, which controls the rights to the books, said it had worked with Puffin to review and revise the texts because it wanted to ensure that ‘Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today.’

While tweaking old books for modern sensibilities is not a new phenomenon in publishing, the scale of the edits drew strong criticism from free-speech groups such as writers’ organisation PEN America, and from authors including Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie, who lived under threat of death from Iran’s Islamic regime for years because of the alleged blasphemy of his novel ‘The Satanic Verses,’ called the revisions ‘absurd censorship.’

Rushdie, who was attacked and seriously injured last year at an event in New York state, tweeted news of Penguin’s change of heart on

Friday with the words ‘Penguin Books back down after Roald Dahl backlash!’

PEN America chief executive Suzanne Nossel wrote on Twitter: ‘I applaud Penguin for hearing out critics, taking the time to rethink this, and coming to the right place.’

Camilla, Britain’s queen consort, appeared to offer her view at a literary reception on Thursday. She urged writers to ‘remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination.’

Dahl’s books, with their mischievous children, strange beasts and often beastly adults, have sold more than 300 million copies and continue to be read by children around the world. Their multiple stage and screen adaptations include ‘Matilda the Musical’ and two ‘Willy Wonka’ films based on ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ with a third in the works.

But Dahl, who died in 1990, is also a controversial figure because of antisemitic comments made throughout his life. His family apologised in 2020.

In 2021, Dahl’s estate sold the rights to the books to Netflix, which plans to produce a new generation of films based on the stories.

Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s, said the publisher had ‘listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.’

‘Roald Dahl’s fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility,’ she said.

‘We also recognize the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print,’ Dow said. ‘By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvelous stories.’