Neuroscience and Art

Artistic Depiction of Human Brain

I think that the study of art and the brain is particularly interesting because the ideas and creativity that spur artists to design their work originates in some way, shape or form from their brains. Whether they are inspired externally or internally, the action of shaping their work occurs within their minds. Similarly, humans experience art through their brain after it is perceived by their senses (Tucker).

Carl Jung
On a physical level, every human has the same physical makeup roughly, of their brains. They have the same types of cells, the same types of neurotransmitters, etc. It is fascinating that these same components can produce such a wide array of artists, and people in general. John Brockman believed that despite all of the science and math defining these components, that “conscious involves noncomputable ingredients” (Brockman). How then does one characterize the brain? Another school of thought believed that the brain couldn’t be characterized through its physical components, but only through behavior (Varel et al.).

Freud and Jang seemed to follow that school of thought and broke consciousness down into non-physical components based on their study of people and their actions (Vesna). Jang believed in many archetypes that make up a consciousness and that these were innate within the and within every human as imprinted by evolution (McLeod). The modern assessment of the brain in these manners appears to be just as much art as science. Researchers have to understand the emotions, the imagery, and the “noncomputbale” components to understand the essence of what makes humans “human”.
Evolution of Human Brain


Works Cited

McLeod, Saul. “Carl Jung.” Simply Psychology, 3 Apr. 2014, www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html.

“Roger Penrose.” The Third Culture, by John Brockman, Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Tucker, Abigail. “How Does the Brain Process Art?” Smithsonian Magazine, Nov. 2012.

Varela, Francisco J., et al. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. The MIT Press, 2016.



Vesna, Victoria, director. Neuroscience-pt2. Youtube, 117 May 2012.

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