Aesthetic shapes our perception of every-day objects: An ERP study S. Righi * , G. Gronchi, G. Pierguidi, S. Messina, M.P. Viggiano Psychology Section - Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health, University of Florence, Italy article info Article history: Received 27 May 2016 Received in revised form 22 February 2017 Accepted 17 March 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Aesthetic experience ERPs Attractiveness Oddball Go/NoGo task 1. Introduction Taking up a research interest as old as scientific psychology itself (Fechner, 1871; Wundt, 1874), in the 1970s, Berlyne (1971, 1974) developed an extensive framework for explaining the aesthetic value of artwork in psychobiological terms. He took into accountdbut did not limit his examination todemotional and perceptual factors, including arousal, reward and aversion, and information and uncertainty of the stimulus. Since this proposal, in recent decades several authors have investigated the perceptive and cognitive basis of the aesthetic experience and have tried to ground their results in general theories of brain and cognitive system function. Overall, the neuroaesthetics literature paints a highly complex picture in which many brain areas associated with perceptual, emotional, and cognitive processing interact to deter- mine the aesthetic experience. This paper aims to explore the temporal dynamics of aesthetic experience resulting from the interplay of emotional value with perceptual and cognitive factors (perception, attention, decision making, and action selection). 1.1. The neural basis of the aesthetic experience Neuroimaging studies converge on the notion that aesthetic appreciation is related to activity in three functionally distinct sets of neural regions (Cela-Conde, Agnati, Huston, Mora, & Nadal, 2011; Nadal, 2013). The aesthetic experience is related to an increase in the activity of cortical regions involved in the allocation of atten- tional resources and evaluative judgments, including the prefrontal cortex (dorsolateral and ventrolateral), temporal pole, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus (Cela-Conde et al., 2013; Cupchik, Vartanian, Crawley, & Mikulis., 2009; Jacobsen, Schubotz, H€ ofel, & Cramon, 2006; Lengger, Fischmeister, Leder, & Bauer, 2007). Aesthetic appreciation also involves an attention-related enhancement activity in visuoperceptual areas (bilateral fusiform gyri, angular gyrus, and the superior parietal cortex) (Cela-Conde et al., 2009; Cupchik, Vartanian, Crawley, & Mikulis, 2009; Ishizu & Zeki, 2013; Lacey et al., 2011; Lengger et al., 2007). Finally, aesthetic experiences activate the neural reward network including the anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal, insular, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, the thalamus, and the hippocam- pus (Bar & Neta, 2007; Brown, Martinez, & Parsons, 2004; Cupchik et al., 2009; Di Dio, Canessa, Cappa, & Rizzolatti, 2011; Harvey, Kirk, Denfield, & Montague, 2010; Ishizu & Zeki, 2013; Kawabata & Zeki, 2004; Kirk, Skov, Christensen, & Nygaard, 2009; Kirk, Skov, Hulme, Christensen, & Zeki, 2009; Lacey et al., 2011; Vartanian & Skov, 2014). As pertains the temporal course of the aesthetic experience, the few electrophysiological studies that have been undertaken (mag- netoencephalographic: Cela-Conde et al., 2004; Munar et al., 2012; event-related potential [ERP]: H€ ofel & Jacobsen, 2007; Jacobsen & H€ ofel, 2003; Righi, Orlando, & Marzi, 2014) showed two stages in the processing of attractiveness. First, an initial general appraisal of the aesthetic value of a visual stimulus (perceived as “beautiful” or “not beautiful”) is performed around 300e400 ms in the dorso- lateral prefrontal cortex. Later in the time course (from 400 to 1000 ms), the aesthetic judgment is indexed by an enhanced parietal positivity for stimuli that are perceived as beautiful compared to stimuli that are perceived as ugly (de Tommaso et al., 2008a; H€ ofel & Jacobsen, 2007; Jacobsen & H€ ofel, 2003). All these observations support the idea that the brain areas mediating aesthetic responses to artwork overlap those that mediate emotions and the appraisal of objects of evolutionary * Corresponding author. Psychology Section - Department of Neuroscience, Psy- chology, Drug Research and Child's Health, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, 50135 Firenze, Italy. E-mail address: stefania.righi@unifi.it (S. Righi). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect New Ideas in Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/newideapsych http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.007 0732-118X/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. New Ideas in Psychology xxx (2017) 1e10 Please cite this article in press as: Righi, S., et al., Aesthetic shapes our perception of every-day objects: An ERP study, New Ideas in Psychology (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2017.03.007