The Neural Basis Of Musical Aesthetic Processing

As early as the ancient Greek period,the idea of aesthetic education has become an important part of ancient education and has been passed down to this day.The core of aesthetic education lies in aesthetics,and the core issues of aesthetics include debate between subjective and objective beauty.So,is there objective beauty and subjective beauty? What is the relationship between them? Clarifying these questions will not only help answer the long-standing basic questions in aesthetics,but also provide an effective path for the realization of aesthetic education.Although the tendency of empirical aesthetics research appeared in the second half of the 19 th century,it was the end of the 20 th century that was truly regarded as an important turning point for aesthetic research.With the appearance of neuroaesthetics at the end of the 20 th century,it has become possible to study the “aesthetic brain” from the perspective of neuroscience research,which provides a new research for the inquiry of these issues.This study takes the beauty of music as the research object,and uses MEG to explore the objective beauty of music(analysis based on objective conditions),subjective beauty(analysis based on the subjective reaction of the subjects)and the neural differences in their processing.Our research include three studies: the first study focuses on the processing of objective beauty,including 2 experiments,aiming to explore the influence and predictability of the objectively existing form and structure of music materials on aesthetic judgments,and the neural basis related to the objective beauty;the second study focuses on subjectivity of aesthetics,including two experiments to examine the difference in neural activity judged to be beautiful and unbeautiful conditions(subjective beauty)and the influence of individual factors on this neural activity;the third study is based on the previous two studies,the neural differences between subjective beauty and objective beauty were analyzed and compared.In Experiment 1,based on investigating the influence of music form and structure on aesthetic judgments,we use a logistic regression model to examine the predictability of selected formal parameters on subjects' aesthetic judgments.The results showed that the accuracy was above 70% for the predictive of aesthetic judgments based on the structural parameters.On this basis,Experiment 2 examined the neural activity of musical processing that conforms to and does not conform to the rules of beauty in the aesthetic state.It turns out that the processing of objective beauty involves a wide range of brain regions,such as the orbitofrontal cortex,the middle temporal gyrus,and the cingulate gyrus.At the same time,both the negative activation of the brain region and the desynchronization of the alpha band oscillation are related to the default mode network(DMN).Experiment 3 examined the neural activity between the condition of subjectively judged as beautiful or not.The results showed that compared with the condition judged to be not beautiful,under the condition judged to be beautiful: temporal gurus,parietal and frontal cortex showed less activated in 105-10.938 s after the music onset;orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex showed greater activation in 10.938-11.375;larger alpha band oscillation,and increased default network-related coherence.Experiment 4 examined whether these neural activities were affected by individual factors.It turns out that these neural activities are affected by gender and have nothing to do with personality.On the basis of the above-mentioned experimental researches,the third study further compared the neural differences between subjectively judged beauty and objective beauty,aiming to reveal the difference between the neural activity of subjective beauty and objective beauty.The results further show that,compared with the processing of objective beauty,the processing of subjective beauty induces more positive activation right LOFC in T1,T3 and T6 and alpha band oscillations,but the connectivity mode displayed pattern dissociation.Compared with subjective beauty processing,the neural activity of objective beauty processing shows the opposite trend.In summary,whether the neural activity related to objective beauty or the neural activity induced by the judgment of subjective beauty,they are all related to the default networ.Nevertheless,the brain activity related to objective beauty involves the negative activation of the default network,which is a kind of processing towards external stimuli,consistent with the view of "beauty in the object" advocated by objective beauty in philosophy.In subjective judgments,music judged to be beautiful involves greater activation of the default network following the process of musical material,which reflects an inner-oriented mental activity,which may be a mental activity related to the self.The results of this study further show that objective beauty and subjective beauty are both different and connected,and they cannot be separated.This research verifies the existence of objective beauty from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience,and reveals the neural differences between subjective beauty,objective beauty,and the processing of the two,providing empirical evidence for aesthetic research.On the other hand,this study also provides a reference for the realization of aesthetic education from the perspective of teaching materials,teachers and students.