PERIODIC AND APERIODIC SPECTRAL SIGNATURES OF BEING MOVED BY ART

Summary

When people feel intensely moved by art, the brain enters a distinct neural state rather than simply showing a stronger version of a moderate response. EEG recordings of 22 Chilean participants viewing artworks revealed that specific brainwave patterns, particularly in beta bands and aperiodic activity (1/f exponent), predicted the transition to peak aesthetic experiences. These threshold-specific effects suggest that intense aesthetic experiences are qualitatively different from moderate ones, with unique oscillatory dynamics and cortical excitability.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Intense aesthetic experiences are among the most complex responses arising from the interaction of mind, brain, and context. Observations from fMRI suggest that when viewers feel highly moved by artworks, the underlying neural states differ from those accompanying less intense responses, particularly through recruitment of the DMN. Using electroencephalography and Bayesian category-specific cumulative link mixed models, we investigated whether such putative peak aesthetic responses exhibit threshold-specific neurodynamics rather than linear scaling with intensity. Twenty-two Chilean participants viewed 113 diverse local artworks whilst rating how moved they felt on a four-point scale. We analysed both canonical oscillatory power (θ–γ) and aperiodic components (offset and exponent) during the contemplation window and the post-elicitor window. Threshold-specific effects were found: spectral features differentiated the highest rating category from moderate responses, rather than scaling uniformly across all intensity levels. During artwork visualisation, power in the β 1 and β 2 bands, as well as the interaction of β 1 with the 1/f exponent, predicted the transition to the most intense response; during the post-elicitor window, the aperiodic 1/f exponent predicted the transition from very low to higher-intensity responses. Modelling individual differences in spectral signatures (in the α and γ bands) credibly improved predictive performance (approximate leave-one-out cross-validation; elpd_loo), suggesting that neural variability reflects meaningful mechanistic heterogeneity in aesthetic processing rather than mere noise. These findings speak to a broader question, how the brain marks the intensity of conscious experience, and, more specifically, support the hypothesis that being intensely moved constitutes a qualitatively distinct neural state, characterised by specific configurations of oscillatory dynamics and cortical excitability that modulate the transition from low and moderate to peak engagement.

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