What neuroaesthetics is, and how neuroscience methods can be used to explore our aesthetic experience

What is beautiful? Scholars and thinkers have been asking this question since Plato’s time, trying to find the answer in the human heart and soul. However, with the development of the exact sciences, it has become clear that the human brain is responsible for the perception of beauty and harmony.

In the 1990s, the British neurobiologist Semir Zeki coined the term "neuroaesthetics" for a field of scientific knowledge that studies the psychophysiological, neurophysiological and biochemical foundations of our aesthetic experience. Scientists working in this field are trying to find patterns of beauty perception common to all people. Why, in neuroscience terms, do we enjoy certain works of art? What methods do researchers use to find answers? We will explore these questions in detail during the first lecture of our new series.

Lecturer

Daria Podvigina graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at St Petersburg University in 2002 and started working at Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the same year. Since 2015, she has been Senior Research Associate at the Laboratory for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University (since 2020 − the Institute for Cognitive Studies at the University). Her main research interests are neurophysiological and psychophysiological mechanisms of visual perception and recognition of complex images. She is the author of more than 40 scholarly papers. In addition to her research activities, she teaches a number of courses at the Institute for Cognitive Studies and at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St Petersburg University: lecture courses "Introduction to Life Sciences", "Human: Evolution, Culture, Behaviour", and others.

The meeting will be held online in Russian with simultaneous interpreting into Spanish.

Registration