ARTH 4206 Neuroesthetics: Creativity and the Brain

This lecture course introduces students to Neuroaesthetics, a new discipline that aims at understanding the brain and psychological mechanisms that underpin aesthetic appreciation and art making. The course will survey the questions and concepts that Neuroaesthetics addresses, as well as its historical antecedents, its history and its findings. At the crossroads between aesthetics, the psychology of the arts and neuroscience, the course will engage students in a constant dialogue between art and science. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, the course will be co-taught by an art historian and a neuroscientist.