neurosciences &design - an emotional approach

1. Couto, Ana & Durão, Maria
Neurosciences & Design
research project for a PhD degree for the
Doctorate in Design at the Faculty of
Architecture, Technical University of
Lisbon

2. This paper presents part of the research carried
out within the Doctoral Programme of Design
on the subject concerning Clothing and
Emotional Response.

3. The adoption of an approach from the neurosciences to
the field of design allows this study to explore
dimensions and categories of the affective relations
between the human being and the objects, since the
appreciation of a piece of clothing interrelates
perception and consciousness as well.

4. Why neurosciences?
underlying concepts
look at
?questions
appreciation & preference
?questions
references

5. our construction of the external world in
our minds requires the detection of the
physical energy and its codification in
neural signals, as well as the selection,
organization and interpretation of our
sensations, so that the perceptual
process fuses sensations with cognition.
Why neurosciences?

6. As a result of the studies of the brain and
the mind by neuroscientists with modern
scanning equipment it possible to know
much more about how humans
experiences their environment, about
why they have such experiences.
Why neurosciences?

7. 4underlying concepts
The brain generates mental patterns that we
experience as images of the object and
creates a “sense of self”.
This “sense of self “ is rooted in bodily
processes of life regulation, emotion and
affect to such an extent that cognition and
intentional actions are emotional.

8. 4underlying concepts
The visual recognition of objects is part of the
way through which we think about what we
see. The process of visual recognition interacts
with the world and allows us to think about it.
Appreciation is ultimately emotional , is a
positive response to the object that we look
at.

9. idea
When we “look” at a jacket innumerable neuronal
processes are unchained and are integrated into
our experience. Different parts of the brain
communicate to integrate data, in view of
decision making and behaviours such as
appreciation and preference (emotional
responses).
.

10. For us the key words in these processes are:
Visual interactiom, Recognition and categorization,
cousciousness, afective response.

11. When I look at piece of clothing, for
example, a “jacket” I perceive colours,
shapes, composition, textures, pockets,
stitches, linings, buttons, other details and
thus I form the concept of a “jacket”.
In other words, the act of looking integrates
the categorization of the object.
“jacket”- an determines the way we think
about it (Peissig and Tarr, 2007).
look at

12. Neuroscience and some neuroimage studies
already carried out, provide the characteristics
of this process of categorization:
Categorization is a specialized process even
though not consensual as to whether there
exists a functional specialization.
look at

13. visual interaction
As activações neuronais relativas a estímulos visuais são distintas das
provocadas por outros estímulos.

14. casas
facesar
aschairs
Ivisual interaction
nteracção Visual
hause

15. Categorization is formed from our body and
transforms into the matter of experience
itself. (Lakoff, G & Johnson, M 1999).
look at

16. idea
This awareness is more than the experience of
qualia, or even the broad spectrum of
qualitative sensations. It integrates the
awareness of having knowledge and the
multiple experiences provided by various
centers of the brain.

17. houses
faces
chairs
The second characteristic is that categorization
is based on the attributes of the object (Ishai et
al, 1999).
look at

18. These characteristics immediately raise
questions relative to the object and to our
interaction with , that are relevant to the
theory of design:
What attributes are these from which to
categorize? Colours, shape, balance,
composition, previous experiences, others?
? questions

19. Do these attributes vary according to different
classes of objects or are they permanent with
differences in relevance?
? questions

20. When these attributes of categorization
transform themselves in the matter of
experience and are therefore integral to the
interaction that we develop with the objects,
what do they signify?
? questions

21. For this biologic process become an experience, a “conscious
awareness” needs to take place.
This awareness is more than a simple acknowledgment or the
experience of qualia, or even the broad spectrum of
qualitative sensations. It integrates the awareness of having
knowledge and the multiple experiences provided by various
centers of the brain.
Appreciation &Preference

22. For this experience become an affective process,
reactions based on perceptual factors of which
we are not aware but also the information that
we are conscious of needs to take place beside
the initial response to object perception and its
categorization.
! appreciation & preference

23. Neuroaesthetics claims that there are various factors in
the perceptual realm to which we reach passively as
prototypicality, peak shift, repetition, grouping,
contrast, symmetry, rythm, orderliness, balance
,metaphor

24. Some of these elements are applicable to clothing, and
may be some of them explain the causal relations
that are set up between the human being and an
object. Love (2003)
?
? questions

25. There are other research issues that are involved in
the present study. In fact it is the transposition of
knowledge within the disciplinary areas of
neuroscience that we find a solid basis for the
study of affective relations, such as appreciation
or preference for a piece of clothing.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He
to whom this emotion is a stranger who can no longer
pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead:
his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein

26. Thank you accouto@fa.utl.pt

27. References
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Review of Psychology,58,pp373-403
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Consciousness,Emotional Self Regulation and the Brain, pp87-122, ed M
Beauregard

28. Peissig, J, &Tarr , M ,2007, «Form Perception or Object Recognition-Visual
objects recognition:Do we know more than we did 20 years ago?», Annual
Review of Psychology,75, pp75-97
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fMRI analysis» Psychophysiology 35, pp 199-210.
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of pleasantness.
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Martin, Alex, 2007, «The Representation of Object Concepts in the Brain»
Annual Review of Psychology,58,pp25-47
Ou, L, Luo, MR, Woodcock, A, & Wright, A, 2004,« A study of colour emotion
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