Category: E4001

The aim of this Research Topic is to clarify the role of aesthetic experiences in driving cognitive-emotional change in everyday life at an individual, interpersonal and group level. We are specifically interested in empirical studies of aesthetic emotions in relation to learning and psychopathology. Modern aesthetics — i.e., the science of what is sensed — was originally intended as an alternative to the philosophy of knowledge; in Baumgarten’s words: “the science of sensory knowledge directed toward beauty” (Baumgarten, 1750). In the past few decades, there has been a renewed interest in this relation between aesthetic emotion and knowledge acquisition. Recent evidence suggests that the perception of beauty may subtend the learning process -i.e., the update of perceptual, affective and relational expectations and behavioural plans- and, as such, the somatic markers of aesthetic emotions could serve as potential biomarkers for transient states of enhanced brain plasticity. These findings extend neuroaesthetic research to a wide range of human activities focused on learning and cognitive change, such as education and healthcare.

We invite researchers to join forces to document, investigate and understand the role of aesthetic experiences in driving change. We expect contributions deeply rooted in neuro-behavioural data and drawing from multidisciplinary approaches, where experimental and applied aesthetic research may dialogue: neurosciences, clinical and experimental neuropsychology, cognitive science, neurocomputational modelling, experimental psychology, clinical and developmental psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry, as well as neurorehabilitation.

The key domains of application that will be considered in the special issue are the following:

-Learning/Education. Learning models and research on memory (e.g., how do aesthetic principles potentiate learning), design of timelines and spaces for learning, teaching and educational activities in general.

-Mental Health and psychotherapy: possible application of neuroaesthetic principles to psychotherapy, clinical settings and neurorehabilitation contexts. How do aesthetic competences and aesthetic settings serve diagnostic, rehabilitation and therapeutic processes? Research on the aesthetic variables in the therapeutic encounter: e.g., how do aesthetic sensibility and aesthetic tools/practices influence the therapy of neurological/psychopathological conditions?

-Normal and pathological learning: how do aesthetic emotions influence learning processes and plasticity in normal individuals and in psychiatric and neurological patients? Can we obtain a better understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms subtending psychopathological behaviour using neuroaesthetic principles?