Sir
In the art and science discussion1 it is suggested that art's influence on science is thinner than the other way around. Although the yardstick with which we measure such influences is imperfect, the influence of art is not so thin in neurological science, the study of the mind in the brain.
The mind is expressed in fine art works by artists whose studios are natural laboratories for neurological science. Here are some examples: (i) The ability of artists to paint masterfully even after cortical damage has shown that talent is diffusely represented in the brain, unlike speech, language comprehension or memory, which have focal brain representations2. (ii) Magritte's The Rape has led to insights about how faces are perceived in the two brain hemispheres in split-brain patients3. (iii) The selective emphasis on the left half of women's faces in portraits by Rembrandt, and by many other portrait painters over several centuries, has led to numerous psychological experiments, including discovering facial asymmetry in the manifestation of beauty in women's faces and speculating about adaptive coevolution between face and brain4.
Because artistic productions reflect the mind in the brain, art holds many insights for behavioural brain researchers.
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Zaidel, D. W. in Brain Circuits and Functions of the Mind (ed Trevarthen, C. B., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990).
Zaidel, D. W., Chen, A. C. & German, C. Neuropsychologia 33, 649– 653 (1995).
Chandler, R. The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (Ecco Press, New York).
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Zaidel, D. Art and science. Nature 390, 330 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/36967
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/36967