The philosopher Alva Noë published an essay in the New York Times’ Opinionator blog section that is very critical of what neuroscience has to offer when it comes to understanding art. Noah Hutton offers an alternative point of view in the form of a paragraph-by-paragraph response to Noë’s essay.
Charles Butter’s new book “Crossing Cultural Borders: Universals in Art and Their Biological Roots” is an art historical study of the human impulse to create, seen through the lens of perceptual neuroscience.
Greg Dunn is a visual artist and has a Ph.D in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. It’s not so easy to tell at first glance whether Dunn is painting a branching pattern of a plant or that of a neuron. But maybe that’s the point.
Two things happened on the last Saturday in October. The first snow of the season came. That was the first thing that happened, and unfortunate too, because there’s a leak in the boiler in my building, so gas doesn’t have the necessary pressure to make it up five flights of pre-war pipes. At least that’s [...]
Sam McDougle explains the purported evolutionary relevance of that horrible nails-on-chalkboard sound.
Two things happened on the last Saturday in October. The first snow of the season came. That was the first thing that happened, and unfortunate too, because there’s a leak in the boiler in my building, so gas doesn’t have the necessary pressure to make it up five flights of pre-war pipes. At least that’s [...]
We are proud to present the Year Two update to director Noah Hutton’s 10-year film-in-the-making that will chronicle the progress of The Blue Brain Project, Henry Markram’s attempt to reverse-engineer the brain, one neuron at a time.
Ben Ehrlich reports on a recent talk given by neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland on the topic of her new book about morality and the brain, entitled Braintrust.
Greg Dunn is a visual artist and has a Ph.D in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. It’s not so easy to tell at first glance whether Dunn is painting a branching pattern of a plant or that of a neuron. But maybe that’s the point.
Elizabeth Jameson found her art when her own brain lost one of its most basic functions. We are proud to feature an online gallery of some of her brand new works.
The presence of adult neurogenesis– the birth of new neurons in the mature brain– is a fairly recent revelation in neuroscience. In our third Art of Neuroscience gallery, we present stunning images of newborn cells in the adult brain.
The philosopher Alva Noë published an essay in the New York Times’ Opinionator blog section that is very critical of what neuroscience has to offer when it comes to understanding art. Noah Hutton offers an alternative point of view in the form of a paragraph-by-paragraph response to Noë’s essay.
Contributor Ben Ehrlich examines patterns throughout all life stories, including those of Santiago Ramon y Cajal and the neuron he discovered.
Jeremy Fordham explores the cognitive effects of playing Tetris: how the classic puzzle game forces the brain to tackle complex, time-sensitive problems with greater and greater efficiency.
To kick off our new season of The Beautiful Brain Podcast, host Noah Hutton sits down with Carl Schoonover, author of “Portraits of the Mind,” to talk about how we have imaged the brain from antiquity to the present.
In this month’s podcast we proudly present a conversation with the outspoken artist and author Garry Kennard. Kennard, the founder of artandmind.org, and has hosted many conferences and festivals that have brought together leading thinkers in the fields of art and brain research.
In this month’s podcast, Noah Hutton speaks with British artist Andrew Carnie, whose current installation at the GV Art Gallery in London uses slide projections to explore the evolving narrative of the brain.
Sam McDougle explains the purported evolutionary relevance of that horrible nails-on-chalkboard sound.
Interesting new reasearch suggests that individuals perceive different “amounts” of free will in themselves vs. others.
Language, upright posture, tool-making — these are examples of commonly cited “human-specific” behaviors. But how unique are these behaviors to us clever, hairless apes? New research on a bird from the South Pacific shows that some humbling evolutionary parallels can be lightly drawn between human and nonhuman tool-using behaviors.
Charles Butter’s new book “Crossing Cultural Borders: Universals in Art and Their Biological Roots” is an art historical study of the human impulse to create, seen through the lens of perceptual neuroscience.
Jeremy Finch reviews “The Buying Brain”, in which author A.K. Pradeep explores the budding field of neuromarketing and describes its current and future applications.
While it is not rare that a film is made with heavy philosophical aims, it isn’t common either. Of the films that do address big questions, very few use scientific discoveries to frame their stance, barring the eccentric fancies of science fiction.t
The New York Times recently covered some cool new research that shows that Australia’s Great Bowerbirds use techniques of illusion and perspective to make their mate-attracting constructions sexier. The researches explain:
Male great bowerbirds actively maintain size-distance gradients of objects on their bower courts that create forced-perspective illusions for females viewing their displays from within the bower avenue.
Bowerbird aesthetics offer an interesting angle on evolution and art itself — there are a variety of theories about the biology of art, which we explore here at The Beautiful Brain. Some of the most striking theories are reductionist views: perhaps art sprung directly from sexual selection – the need to impress our mates – and it’s variety, constant change, and centrality to human life should be viewed through an evolutionary lens. It’s an interesting thought, and certainly gets some support from the bowerbird arts collective.
