This presentation discusses neuroaesthetics, which is the study of the neural processes underlying human artistic behavior and experiences. It explores how insights from neuroscience can be applied to design. Specifically, it discusses how the brain perceives patterns and finds pleasure in processing them quickly and accurately. It also examines how the brain forms mental models from inherited and acquired concepts, and how design could better align with these mental models. Finally, it presents "cards" as an emerging design pattern that takes advantage of how the brain naturally works with information presented in that format. The presentation argues for a holistic, "micro-macro" perspective in design that considers both individual elements and the overall experience.

1. Hi! I’m Simon from Nomensa.
This is my presentation Neuroaesthetics:
science embraces art from UX Brighton
2013.
I’ve added my notes to each of the slides.
Any questions, please contact me
@simon_norris.
So, what is beauty? Why is beauty so
important? How does it work? What can
we learn from understanding beauty?
More importantly by understanding it can
we design better experiences?

2. 22
Jan Vermeer painting A girl with pearl
earring c.1665
What does her look mean?

3. Aphrodite of Milos or the Venus de Milo,
is one of the most famous works of
ancient Greek sculpture and is currently
on permanent display at the Louvre
Museum in Paris.
We have been creating works of art for
thousands of years.

4. David is a masterpiece of Renaissance
sculpture created between 1501 and
1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo.

5. 55
Claude Monet’s Impression Sunrise c.
1872
The name of the picture contains the
name of the art movement ‘impressionist’
in the title even though it was heavily
criticised at the time.

6. 6
Impression Sunrise in black-and-white.
Whilst the sun was the brightest object in
the sky in the previous slide it is hardly
distinguishable when the colour is
removed. The sun should always be
brighter than the sky if painting in a
representational style. Obviously, Monet
knew how to paint the sun so it would
shimmer in the picture and therefore by
breaking the purely representational style
creates something totally new and
different: the impressionist art movement.

7. Neuroaesthetics: science embraces art
So, Neuroaesthetics: science embraces
art
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy
concerned with art, beauty and taste has
been discussed for thousands of years
since the time of Plato. It is obviously
pretty important!
David Hume a British empiricist in the
18th century argued that beauty does not
exist in things but the minds that
contemplate them. Does the property for
aesthetic preference exist in all human
brains?
This presentation will provide a quick tour
of the domain of neuroaesthetics and
therefore start by looking at the brain, its
function and how insights from this
domain can be applied to design.But firstly, a definition...

8. “...neuroaesthetics, is a new scientific
discipline whose object it is to identify and
understand the neural processes involved in
human art behaviour - those processes that
underlie both the construction and experience
of art.”
Skov & VartanianNeuroaesthetics definition by Skov &
Vartanian which focuses on art
perception and experience.
It raises an interesting question…..

9. Beauty is also a property of non-art objects
Does neuroaesthetics play a role in non-
art objects?
We don’t just respond to art but we also
respond to non-art. Let’s look at a range
of non-art objects that have aesthetic
appeal.

10. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao designed
by architect Frank Gehry and opened in
1997.
The curves and unusual geometry make
this building interesting and aesthetically
appealing.

11. Zaha Hadid designed the Innovation
Tower for the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University which was completed in 2013.
Like the Guggenheim it is unusual and
aesthetically interesting.

12. From exteriors to the interiors of
buildings.
The Amagerbro Metro Station in
Copenhagen is a beautiful image
showing the fabulous lighting and
geometry of the space.

13. From the things we build to things built by
nature.
The image of Mount Fuji reflected in Lake
Yamanaka is a great natural example of
symmetry showing the snow capped
mountain rising above the town.
Human beings are sounded by many
examples of symmetry within nature. Is it
no wonder we have a strong preference
for symmetrical objects?

14. Tigers, like many animals within the
animal kingdom, are considered
beautiful.
This image showing the tiger staring
straight at us reveals its amazing eye
colour and the pattern of its stripes. It’s
an enigmatic image.
For everyone who likes cats :)

15. When we look out into the cosmos there
are a great many objects of beauty.
Our star, the Sun, may look a little scary
here but it is still beautiful.

16. Our own Mother Earth showing an image
of our planet only observable twice a
year, during an Equinox.

17. To our own galaxy the Milky Way
showing Orion Nebula and Orion’s belt
The cosmos is beautiful.

18. Even the things we make can be
beautiful.
Smeg’s retro-style refrigerators with their
curves and simple design have aesthetic
appeal.

19. To a much smaller product designed with
aesthetic appeal. In fact, its beautiful
design is considered one of its major
features and has catapulted Apple’s
iPhone (version 5) to one the top profit
generating companies in the world.
Aesthetics can make or break a product!

20. Even websites can be considered
aesthetic. The Nominet website is
responsive and could be considered as
an example of a website with aesthetic
appeal. The responsive design approach
could also be considered an aesthetic
preference. In other words, we are
developing preferences for websites that
are responsive and the more
aesthetically pleasing they are, as well
as, responsive, the better the user
experience.
So, aesthetics can be commercially
beneficial.

21. We also like abstract patterns. We want
to make sense of them.
There are many things in our lives both
natural and designed that have aesthetic
appeal.

22. Why are some things beautiful?
What drives aesthetics?

23. So, if beauty is not in the eye but in the
brain. That brings us onto another
important question.
What is the function of the brain?

24. “the acquisition of knowledge...”
Zeki
I appreciate that there can be many
different definitions for the brain and what
it does. That said, I find the definition by
Zeki to be particularity poignant.

25. Simir Zeki is Professor of
Neuroaesthetics at the University College
of London and founded the Institute of
Neuroaesthetics in 2001 at Berkeley,
California.
Zeki is known among other things for the
discovery of the many visual areas of the
brain and their functional specialisation
for different visual attributes such as
colour, motion and form.
For example discovering neurones in a
part of the monkey visual system that
would respond only when a particular
colour, rather than a particular
wavelength, was in their receptive fields.
For example, he showed that a red-
sensitive neuron would continue to
respond to a red stimulus, even when it
was illuminated mainly by green light.
This was important because it was the
first study relating colour perception to
single cell physiology in the brain.
This is really interesting and maybe even
a little controversial because it
challenges the orthodox view that
processing sites in the visual brain are
separate from perceptual sites but in fact,
that processing sites can also be
perceptual sites. An idea Zeki calls
Micro-consciousness!

26. An MRI scanner.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI),
nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
(NMRI), or magnetic resonance
tomography (MRT) is a medical imaging
technique used in radiology to visualise
internal structures of the body in detail.
MRI makes use of the property of nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) to image
nuclei of atoms inside the body. MRI can
create more detailed images of the
human body than are possible with X-
rays.

27. The image shows the topography of the
primary visual cortex and surrounding
areas.
This type of image is a typical output of
the brain shown in sagittal view (A and B)
with a close-up on the visual areas (V1,
V2, V3, VP, V3A and V4V) .
It is important to note that there is no
single area where all specialised visual
circuitry connects and therefore no single
neural centre exists and it is more likely
to be a neural network.

28. What is interesting about the brain and
specifically the cortex is its 6 layer
formation.
The same anatomical structure can have
profoundly different functions. It is very
hard to tell by anatomical analysis the
difference between the areas for touch,
smell or hearing. Compare this to other
areas of the body where the differences
can be obvious even by the untrained
observer looking at the anatomical
structures of the retina or the cochlea.
The 6 layers are composed of two cell
types.

29. 29
The architecture of the cerebral cortex is
composed of a few cellular types, namely
Pyramidal or pyramid cells (a) and
Stellate or star cells (b).
The image shows a detailed view of
Pyramidal or pyramid cells (a) and
Stellate or star cells (b).
Interestingly V1 in the Visual Cortex has
no star cells!

30. brain concepts?
I mentioned earlier the term ‘brain
concept’ but what are a brain concepts?

31. ...there are two kinds [brain concepts], inherited
and acquired. The two kinds are intimately linked
and one could not exist without the other.”
Zeki

32. inherited or acquired
The inherited concepts organising the
signals that come into the brain so as to
instill meaning into them and thus make
sense of them.
The acquired concepts are generated
throughout life by the brain, and make it
significantly independent of the continual
change in the information reaching the brain;
they make it easier for us to perceive and
recognise and thus obtain knowledge of
things and situations.
A good example of an inherited brain
concept is the perception or seeing of colour.
A person with a normal brain cannot control
or ignore the colour they see.We have cells in our Primary Visual Cortex
that are orientation-selective e.g. cells that
only respond to straight lines.So horizontal orientation-selective cells will
not respond to a vertical stimulus.Zeki’s consider this brain ability of cells to
fire for specific stimuli to represent the neural
building blocks of form perception.Zeki also considers it a form of micro-
consciousness that operates below normal
cognitive operation.

33. constancy
Zeki outlines other important functions of
the brain, namely, perceptual constancy
and abstraction.
Perceptual constancy allows us to
maintain visual stimuli when variables
such as distance, viewing angle and
illumination change. In other words the
brain maintains an object’s ‘constancy’
e.g. a banana or a face will remain intact
regardless of light, angle or distance.
The brain is acting with efficiency and
reducing the amount of information that
needs to be remembered or recalled to
recognise a face or a banana in changing
conditions.
It has been argued that art exposes this
constancy because it allows us to capture
the essence of an object.Constancy represents a primordial
function of the visual brain.

34. abstraction
Abstraction is different to constancy and
requires hierarchical neural coordination.
Therefore, general representation can be
applied to many particulars. So in the
case of art it externalises the functions of
abstraction in the brain. However, the
actual processes involved with
abstraction are currently unknown to
cognitive neurobiology.

35. “the particular is subordinated to the general, so
what is represented is applicable to many
particulars.”
ZekiThe quote by Zeki indicates the
limitations of our memories and how
abstraction operates to allow the brain to
behave efficiently within the need for
storing and recalling every detail.
Memory is reconstructed after all.

36. ambiguity
Like abstraction and constancy,
ambiguity can be considered a
fundamental brain behaviour that can
operate at different levels.
Let’s look at a definition for ambiguity.

37. ... a neurobiologically based definition of ambiguity is
the opposite of the dictionary definition; it is not
uncertainty, but certainty - the certainty of many,
equally plausible interpretations, each one of which is
sovereign when it occupies the conscious stage.”
Zeki
Essentially, the brain is very good at
producing many different interpretations.

38. A classic ambiguous object is the Necker
cube.
A visual illusion discovered in 1832 by
the Swiss crystallographer L. A. Necker
whilst observing crystal he noticed
changes in the depth of the crystals, yet,
the crystals were not changing.
It presents an great example of a
physically unvarying stimulus and how
our brains produce 3 possible
interpretations which all are equally valid.

39. 3939
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci
c.1517
What does her smile mean?
It could mean a great many things and
has been described as enigmatic.
It certainly will have more than one
interpretation.

40. How can we use insights from neuroaesthetics in
design?
So, what insights can we use from
neuroaesthetics?
Three areas to explore:
- Patterns and pleasure;
- Mental Models;
- Cards.

41. A great image from Iron Man 3 film
showing Aldrich Killian showing his brain
to Pepper Pots.

42. pleasure and patterns
We have long known about the role of the limbic
system in the perception of pleasure.We could consider aesthetic perception as the
processing of the visual centres in the brain such as
V1 in the visual cortex
We also know that the brain processes patterns in its
continual quest for knowledge.We also know that the more quickly and more
accurately we can represent a pattern the more
enjoyable it is, e.g. we recognise the face of a
mother, father or child more quickly.Patterns that are ambiguous will increase the
number of interpretations we generate. The more
interpretations the more information we need to
process as well as the potential uncertainty we feel.
Patterns include:
- visual layouts, such as pages, and therefore a
pages overall symmetry;- elements within visual layouts (recognition of detail
e.g. a specific feature or function such as the
carousel);
- the flow or interaction between pages.All these elements have an aesthetic that needs to
be considered when designing them. The aesthetic
is not just the colour or arrangement, and it is also
more than the total combined elements. Aesthetics
have a Gestalt-like effect.

43. mental models
Maybe brain concepts are the building
blocks of mental models?
We could be synthesising both acquired
and inherited brain concepts into mental
models. Understanding the link could
help us to design better systems, objects
and experience because we can assure
greater alignment of the design
properties to reflect not just our mental
models but how they are constructed by
the brain.

44. design patterns: cards
Another design pattern that is emerging
in the digital world is the use of cards to
present and control the flow of
information.
All the major digital players are adopting
cards and I believe one of the benefits of
using cards is that they embrace future-
friendly thinking. We have mental
models for using cards. This means
cards can naturally support responsive
design and the fashionable flat design
aesthetic.
Cards are not new and have used to
present information over along period of
time e.g. Top Trumps.
Let’s look at two twitter examples of
cards.

45. The iPhone and iPad version of twitter
showing the discovery option.
You can see how the information is
compartmentalised and works very well
on devices with smaller screens than
desktop or laptop computers.

46. I think designing using Neuroaesthetics
insights and understanding requires a
much broader more holistic approach. It
requires a polymorphous design thinking
attitude - no single perspective is right or
wrong.

47. The user interface in the recent Oblivion
movie have lots of cards!
Hollywood movie user interface
designers obviously believe they are the
future. However, whilst the image is
beautiful I think the idea of big physical
screens may not represent the
technology trajectory we are headed on.
The user interface does not utilise many
of our senses and it certainly does not
combined them to augment how we use
information.

48. micro-macro perspective
We need to adopt a micro-macro
perspective.
Neuroaesthetics is teaching us that
everything is important and a micro-
macro practice considers both the atomic
elements of the design that can be
reduced, as well as, the design from an
holistic (ecological) perspective.
Everything matters and therefore
everything should be considered.

49. beauty/style/aesthetic
So beauty, style, aesthetics - whatever
we call it we know they are all very
important.
Yet beauty is much more than
appearance. We aspire to beauty in all
that surrounds us from architecture, to
fashion, products...well everything we
design. Beauty is meaning. We don't just
see beauty, we feel it.
The more beautiful something is the likely
we are to share it!

50. Everything has beauty, but not everyone
sees it.
Confucius
We need to see the beauty in everything
and heed the wisdom of Confucius.

51. Thank you for your attention