Neuroscience and Art
This week we learned about neuroscience and art, something that I find completely fascinating. Neuroscience is one of the most complex concepts to many, including myself. “The interaction between art and science offers an opportunity to make the scientific community and the public aware of the social and ethical implications of the scientific advances in neuroscience” (Anker and Frazzetto). One thing I very much appreciate is the ability for artists to translate what neuroscience is to people like me. They do this in a subtle yet beautiful way where they help us to understand the perplexity of our brain.
When we take a more in depth looks at Jeff Lichtman’s Brainbow and Suzanne Anker’s fMRI butterfly we become a little more familiar with a relatable concept. This system is a “transgenic technique provided extraordinary pictures of neuronal circuitry, rivalling artistic representations” (Anker and Frazzetto). To explain in better terms, each neuron in the brain was set apart from other neurons by fluorescent proteins - thus in which show the neurons in different colors in order to locate and keep track of the many neurons to study easier and better. This entire system of art demonstrates how beautiful and fascinating our brain really is. According to The Embodied Mind, one can associate biologically based properties with cognition only through behavior.
As neuroscience penetrates the public sphere, it walks into a dense network of cultural meanings and worldviews and is understood through the prism they provide. Artists provide that prism for the public sphere and for scientists through the systems they use to better explain and advance their studies. Neuroculture is on a climb and comes with it’s perks. If you really think about it, our brains are so complicated and do things that we just can't explain nor can science explain. For instance, explaining how our brain works in autism, or how people have aneurysms, or even how emotions work. When I think about neuroscience, I am beyond fascinated with neurologists deal with and accomplish on a daily basis. According to Christiaan Vermeleun ,” All people have a unique genetic coding that influences a genetic predisposition toward which lobes, hemispheres, and senses will dominate when processing information.”
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