"When we like what we know – A parametric fMRI analysis of beauty and familiarity"

Bohrn, Isabel; Altmann, Ulrike; Lubrich, Oliver; Menninghaus, Winfried; Jacobs, Arthur (2013). "When we like what we know – A parametric fMRI analysis of beauty and familiarity". Brain and language, 124(1), pp. 1-8. Elsevier 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.10.003

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This paper presents a neuroscientific study of aesthetic judgments on written texts. In an fMRI experiment participants read a number of proverbs without explicitly evaluating them. In a post-scan rating they rated each item for familiarity and beauty. These individual ratings were correlated with the functional data to investigate the neural correlates of implicit aesthetic judgments. We identified clusters in which BOLD activity was correlated with individual post-scan beauty ratings. This indicates that some spontaneous aesthetic evaluation takes place during reading, even if not required by the task. Positive correlations were found in the ventral striatum and in medial prefrontal cortex, likely reflecting the rewarding nature of sentences that are aesthetically pleasing. On the contrary, negative correlations were observed in the classic left frontotemporal reading network. Midline structures and bilateral temporo-parietal regions correlated positively with familiarity, suggesting a shift from the task-network towards the default network with increasing familiarity.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages > Modern German Literary Studies

UniBE Contributor:

Lubrich, Oliver

Subjects:

400 Language > 430 German & related languages
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 830 German & related literatures

ISSN:

0093-934X

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Simone Gehr

Date Deposited:

23 Apr 2014 13:47

Last Modified:

22 May 2023 16:24

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.bandl.2012.10.003

PubMed ID:

23332807

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.49518

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/49518

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