This exchange is not one-way, however. Just as our senses shape how we process and experience art, art can, in turn, reshape our brains. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to reorganise itself throughout life by forming new neural connections. This phenomenon allows the brain to adapt to new experiences, learn new information, and recover from injuries. When an experience is salient, say when we are emotionally captivated by a song or stirred by the exuberant brushwork of a painting, a flood of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine are released into the synapses, enhancing synaptic plasticity. The more salient – impactful or novel – an experience, the more liable it is to alter synaptic connections. By enlivening the senses and engaging sensorimotor, reward, and meaning-making systems (Vartanian & Chatterjee, 2021), art has the capacity to rewire our neural pathways, form new connections, and, in the truest sense, change our brains.

What art speaks to you – that is, what you experience as salient or not, meaningful, beautiful, memorable or not – will depend entirely on you as an individual. This is because no two brains are the same. A shared pathway thought to underlie aesthetic experience, however, is the default mode network (DMN) where the ‘self’ is said to be housed (e.g., Andrews‐Hanna et al., 2014; Mason et al., 2007; McKiernan et al., 2006). When perception is directed inward to where our memories, imagination, and knowledge reside, the DMN acts as a filter that maps personal meaning onto experience. In this way, it is also a pathway via which the arts and aesthetics affect us on a deeply personal level (Vessel et al., 2013).

Chapters 2–4: Mental and physical healing

Chapters 2–4 centre on how the arts cultivate well-being, restore mental health, and support physical healing by altering our biology and emotional states. While many of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, we are in fact, to quote neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, feeling creatures that think (Taylor, 2009, p.19). Before we are able to put conscious thought to experience, our embodied mind is already receiving and generating subjective impressions about the world around us. The biological changes that underlie our emotions occur automatically in response to environmental stimuli. These include maladaptive responses such as cortisol and adrenalin spikes in moments of acute stress or anxiety which, when sustained, can lead to lasting health issues such as burn-out, chronic pain, or depression.

As powerful sensory experiences, the arts are uniquely placed to enrich our environment and alter our physical and psychological states. These chapters provide a worthwhile overview for those interested in aesthetic interventions as a path to improving health outcomes. Understanding how the arts affect the body – whether in the form of sound vibrations that increase the production of nitric oxide to promote relaxation (Beaulieu, 2017), or colours that improve mood by triggering specific neural oscillations (Samuel et al., 2022) – affords the possibility of natural, sensory-based interventions that align with the body’s innate responses and can be individualised according to symptomology and preference. By leveraging these insights, art therapeutic practices are better able to support mental well-being by promoting self-efficacy, resilience, and emotional regulation, as well as improving physical health by reducing stress hormones, boosting immune function, and even facilitating cardiovascular resilience. All through the act of beholding or creating art.

These benefits go beyond well-being to actively support mental health. Arts-based programs are proving to be among the most effective interventions for trauma (Hass-Cohen & Carr, 2008; van der Kolk, 2014; Malchiodi, 2020) and are becoming increasingly recognised as a valuable means of managing serious conditions such as schizophrenia (see Shukla et al., 2022). By restoring functions of the limbic system disrupted by extreme stress and reactivating the brain’s speech centres suppressed in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the arts help to quiet the chaos of a traumatised body and mind. When words fail, the arts offer a powerful alternative for self-expression, enabling release from maladaptive coping patterns, processing of inner experiences, and a restoration of bodily agency and self-awareness. For those whose mental health challenges become a barrier to connection, the arts are there to foster understanding, empathy, and pro-sociality, all the while relieving the shame and stigma that prevent individuals from accessing treatment (Gaiha et al., 2021).

In tandem with their mental health benefits, the arts support physical healing also by providing a path to disease prevention and symptom management. The mechanisms underlying art’s ability to affect change in our brains and bodies span a number of domains that are perpetually interacting with one another. As such, interventions that attend to the psychological, behavioural, and social ramifications of pain – for example, by enabling the processing of emotional distress associated with hurt – can be an effective tool for alleviating its symptoms.

But it is not only our perception of pain that can be altered through sensory input. This is where Chapter 4 becomes truly fascinating, and it is one of the instances where we glean a deeper appreciation for the neuroscience behind aesthetics. There is mounting evidence that the arts are a powerful catalyst for reducing neurodegenerative pathologies. This chapter details how dance is being used to restore motor function in Parkinson’s disease (Edwards, 2016; Bearss & DeSouza, 2021), how music is retrieving the memories of patients with dementia (El Haj et al., 2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2015; Matthews, 2015; Morgan, 2018), and why specific frequencies of light and sound can slow cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer’s by removing amyloid plaque and entraining the brain (Monteiro et al., 2021; Tsai, 2021; Wu et al., 2022).

While it is necessary to temper expectations and not latch on to positive outcomes, this research nonetheless signals a compelling frontier in integrative medicine and raises important questions about how the arts might be better incorporated into healthcare practices. Through this lens, we see how art could shift from an ancillary to a central role in preventive programs and adjunct therapies in clinical settings by fostering resilience, extending cognitive health, and enhancing well-being across the lifespan.

Chapter 5: Amplifying learning

Neuroplasticity, introduced as a core concept early in the book, highlights the brain’s ability to gain and consolidate knowledge and memories through the formation of new synaptic connections. The more engaging or memorable an experience, the more likely the nervous system is to reorganise itself in response. Chapter 5 delves into how, by generating meaningful experiences, art and immersion in aesthetics become a gateway to amplified learning and innovation. Although the chapter’s organisation at times feels disjointed, making it challenging to fully grasp the scientific connections between art and the broader category of ‘salient experiences’ driven by novelty, attention, curiosity, drama, and so on, this section nonetheless presents valuable insights; namely, that there are neurobiological advantages to practising the arts in youth (Rampton, 2017; Therieau, 2021). In this chapter we discover that art doesn’t just foster creativity, but bolsters connections in the hippocampus and other brain regions essential for learning and memory (Groussard et al., 2010), while also strengthening neural pathways involved in executive function, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control (Andersen et al., 2019). By promoting brain maturity and strengthening connectivity, the arts lead to overall improved cognitive, social, and behavioural outcomes that extend throughout one’s life.

The chapter also provides compelling case studies on how arts-based interventions support neurodiverse individuals by addressing unique learning needs. When we pursue a nuanced understanding of learning differences, such as attention deficits, arts-infused experiences can be tailored to the neurodivergent brain, fostering individualised learning paths (Voss et al., 2019; Song et al., 2021). In turn, hands-on, agency-driven approaches that encourage exploration, curiosity, and playful engagement with materials and ideas enable a more adaptive and fulfilling learning process.

Chapters 6–7: Flourishing and creating community

The book closes with a final case for how the arts and aesthetics contribute to an enriched state of being and promote flourishing. The arts, by nature, play on the precipice of the unknown, flirting with anticipation, subverting expectations, and igniting a desire to learn that propels us forward in search of meaning, about ourselves, each other, and the world. This process of discovery, paved by curiosity and wonder, is not only rewarding to us neurobiologically and psychologically but can also become a conduit through which the tethers of self-awareness are suspended. When the DMN is downregulated and neurotransmitters flood the synapses during peak aesthetic experience (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2016; Belfi et al., 2019), the mind shifts from a state of self-centredness to one that is community-centric, arousing a sense of connectedness to those beyond the self. Openness to the possibilities of the unknown is therefore key to not only fostering a rich and meaningful life (Kashdan, 2009), but also facilitating our connections with one another. And when we pay attention and feel into the sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves, we reach beyond curiosity and wonder to find awe reaching back. There is an evolutionary importance to awe and its capacity, through art, to advance us forward by inspiring new ideas, cultivating creativity, increasing tolerance for uncertainty, and amplifying positive emotions and perceptions (Keltner, 2023).

In this way, the arts create culture, which in turn creates the communities that uphold humanity. The final chapter of Your Brain on Art explores how art and artmaking laid the foundation for culture and social cohesion among our earliest ancestors, and how, by stimulating the neurobiological reward system and releasing strong bonding chemicals, it underpins the social value of community. The arts and aesthetics serve as enduring means of strengthening social skills, reinforcing social identity, and fostering a collective sense of belonging. They are embedded in the traditions, symbols, and rituals of cultures and religions across the world and throughout human history. They form the very fabric of our being as social creatures by reinforcing the shared beliefs that help communities thrive across generations. When a culture faces erasure or marginalisation, the arts also provide a vital space for communities to reconnect with their cultural roots, repair losses, and cultivate new traditions that express their evolving identities.

Conclusion

It is clear that the arts possess a profound ability to change us for the better. Our biology, psychology, and behaviour even seem wired to harness their benefits. However, causality is notoriously difficult to establish, and there are times when the distinction between correlation and causation blurs. Without studies clearly cited, it was difficult as the reader to fully assess the strength of the claims made. The brain is an exceedingly complex structure that is in constant communication with itself and its environment. Research that focuses on specific regions or features of its activity often only captures a fragment of the underlying processes that make up subjective experiences. Neuroarts and neuroaesthetics are still relatively nascent fields and they leave ample room for growth in understanding how our brains, as highly interconnected and dynamic systems, respond to art. While it is important to avoid overinterpreting findings, Your Brain on Art is nevertheless a monumental work that does well in navigating the diverse literature, and drawing from the many disciplines and arts-based programs encompassed under this new science. And at a time of instability, the message carried throughout its pages is a powerful one. Simply by engaging our senses and fostering an aesthetic mindset, we can shift the aperture of our awareness to unlock a richer state of being where connection, curiosity, and creativity flourish.

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