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. 2015 Sep 30:9:525.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00525. eCollection 2015.

Art expertise modulates the emotional response to modern art, especially abstract: an ERP investigation

Jane E Else  1 , Jason Ellis  1 , Elizabeth Orme  1
Affiliations

Art expertise modulates the emotional response to modern art, especially abstract: an ERP investigation

Jane E Else et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Art is one of life's great joys, whether it is beautiful, ugly, sublime or shocking. Aesthetic responses to visual art involve sensory, cognitive and visceral processes. Neuroimaging studies have yielded a wealth of information regarding aesthetic appreciation and beauty using visual art as stimuli, but few have considered the effect of expertise on visual and visceral responses. To study the time course of visual, cognitive and emotional processes in response to visual art we investigated the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited whilst viewing and rating the visceral affect of three categories of visual art. Two groups, artists and non-artists viewed representational, abstract and indeterminate 20th century art. Early components, particularly the N1, related to attention and effort, and the P2, linked to higher order visual processing, was enhanced for artists when compared to non-artists. This effect was present for all types of art, but further enhanced for abstract art (AA), which was rated as having lowest visceral affect by the non-artists. The later, slow wave processes (500-1000 ms), associated with arousal and sustained attention, also show clear differences between the two groups in response to both type of art and visceral affect. AA increased arousal and sustained attention in artists, whilst it decreased in non-artists. These results suggest that aesthetic response to visual art is affected by both expertise and semantic content.

Keywords: ERP; abstract art; aesthetics; arousal; attention; expertise; modern art.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A reproduction of the experimental paradigm, showing the succession of _target (1200–1500 ms), frequent (500 ms) and rare (750 ms) non-_target stimuli, and fixation cross (500 ms). After each _target stimuli the rating screen appeared for up to 3000 ms, during which time participants had to give the _target stimuli a visceral affective rating (from 1–7).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Grand average ERP’s for AA for artists (blue) and non-artists (red). Time 0–1000 ms, at selected frontal, central, parietal and occipital sites. Scale −10 ±15 μV. P1 component indicated by dark red arrow formula image; N1 component indicated by light blue arrowformula image; P2 component indicated by green arrow formula image; N2 component indicated by purple arrow formula image; P3 component indicated by black arrow formula image; Late Positive Potential (LPP) indicated by gold arrow formula image.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Grand average ERP’s for RA for artists (blue) and non-artists (red). Time 0–1000 ms, at selected frontal, central, parietal and occipital sites. Scale −10 pm 15 μV. P1 component indicated by dark red arrow formula image; N1 component indicated by light blue arrow formula image; P2 component indicated by green arrow formula image; N2 component indicated by purple arrow formula image; P3 component indicated by black arrow formula image; LPP indicated by gold arrow formula image.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Grand average ERP’s for IA for artists (blue) and non-artists (red). Time 0–1000 ms, at selected frontal, central, parietal and occipital sites. Scale −10 ±15 μV. P1 component indicated by dark red arrow formula image; N1 component indicated by light blue arrow formula image; P2 component indicated by green arrow formula image; N2 component indicated by purple arrow formula image; P3 component indicated by black arrow formula image; LPP indicated by gold arrow formula image.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Grand average topographic scalp maps showing ERP components for the late positive component, (LPP, at 1000 ms), for AA, RA and IA, for two groups, artists (A) and non-artist (NA) for 12 electrodes (F3, C3, P3, PZ, O1 OZ, O2, P4, C4, F4, FZ, CZ).
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