- Looking at art that makes you happy can give you a ‘love buzz’
I’m a scientist as well as a photographer, so when I came up with the idea of this blog post, I was always going to have to spend a lot of time searching for scientific evidence that art benefits our wellbeing. I quickly came across the name Prof Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at University College London. Prof Zeki has found that looking at beautiful art work releases dopamine, the ‘feel-good’ chemical, and can lead to the same physical reaction as falling in love!!! Let that soak in for a second……looking at art that makes you happy can give you the same buzz as your teenage crush…..a love buzz… pretty cool, right?! And presumably, without the angst of spending every evening wondering how you’ll make them notice you!! [Aside: I’m not sure I ever did anything to get noticed by ‘the crush’, but my mum once left cakes on a boy’s car 😊]
If you would like to know a bit more about the science read on, otherwise skip to number 2.
Prof Zeki and colleagues devised a pretty elegant study to see if looking at art you love triggers specific parts of your brain. Twenty-one people participated in the study and rated a range of different art – paintings and snippets of music. They rated the art from 1-9, with 9 being the most beautiful, so that the researchers had a feel for what individuals felt were ‘beautiful’, ‘ugly’ or that they were ‘indifferent’ to. The individuals then went into an MRI scanner and were shown the art/heard the music again. When they experienced art that they thought was beautiful, a very specific area of the brain lit up on the scans – the medial orbitofrontal cortex (part of the prefrontal cortex), part of the reward centre of the brain. [1]
An attractive face also lights up this part of the brain and is further enhanced if this face is smiling [2] – remember that feeling of looking at that crush? And if they smiled whilst you were looking? And if they smiled at you……..🤯 You get the idea!
Prof Zeki talks about his research in this excellent, and brief, Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlzanAw0RP4
2. Looking at art can get your brain working
Our brains are always seeking out patterns in the world around us, looking for meaning, piecing together information, forming a ‘full’ picture. In the case of art, it’s working out whether we like it or not, as well. And it’s working extra hard when it comes to abstract art, when it’s trying to fill in the gaps of what the eyes see, to work out what the picture actually is. So, looking at art gets those neurons firing and gives the brain a workout.
If you’re looking at photos or other art from a place you’ve been to or that reminds you of a particular time or place, then it’s also bringing back those (hopefully) happy memories. Music does the same.
There is some evidence that photographs (as part of something called reminiscence therapy) may help people with dementia – so it’s potentially powerful stuff! [3]
3. Doing any kind of ‘art’ is rewarding to us.
This includes the simple act of doodling or colouring – it really doesn’t have to be ‘good’ art to make us feel good.[4] Any kind of art that distracts us enough to get ‘in the zone’ can give us that mindfulness that is so hard to achieve in normal daily life. Immersing yourself in colouring, for example, can lead to a type of meditative state. It’s meditation without the need to sit and actively try to put thoughts aside – you know what I mean, trying to stop thinking about the things bothering you so you can ‘be mindful’, when all you can do is think about the things!! When you get in the zone when colouring, you simply forget to worry about them – passive mindfulness, I guess…..active mindfulness seems like an oxymoron to me!
Art can catch your eye, distract you from the everyday, give you a much needed break from the hamster wheel of life, make you smile, feel happy and feel more at peace. Art is good for your mind, your body, and I’m going to say your soul too – I’ll struggle to find any hard evidence to back that one up, but Pablo Picasso thought the same:
“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life” – Pablo Picasso
[1] Ishizu, T. & Zeki, S. (2011) Toward A Brain-Based Theory of Beauty. PLoS ONE, 6: e21852. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021852.
[2] O’Doherty, J et al. (2003) Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness. Neuropsychologia; 41(2): 147-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00145-8
[3] Woods B et al. (2018) Reminiscence therapy for dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev; 3(3): CD001120. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001120.pub3.
[4] Kaimal et al. (2017) Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: Coloring, doodling and fre drawing. The Arts in Psychotherapy; 55: 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.05.004
Clare McEwen Photography 