Figure 1.
Example of canonical and modified stimuli.
The original image (Doryphoros by Polykleitos) is shown at the centre of the figure. This sculpture obeys to canonical proportion (golden ratio = 1∶1.618). Two modified versions of the same sculpture are presented on its left and right sides. The left image was modified by creating a short legs∶long trunk relation (ratio = 1∶0.74); the right image by creating the opposite relation pattern (ratio = 1∶0.36). All images were used in behavioral testing. The central image (judged-as-beautiful on 100%) and left one (judged-as-ugly on 64%) were employed in the fMRI study.
Figure 2.
Brain activation of canonical and modified sculptures vs. rest.
The analysis was carried out by averaging activity across the three experimental conditions (observation, aesthetic judgment, proportion judgment). Group-averaged statistical parametric maps are rendered onto the MNI brain template (P-corrected<0.05).
Table 1.
Brain activity reflecting the common effects of Canonical and Modified images vs. baseline across conditions (observation; aesthetic judgment; proportion judgment).
Figure 3.
Brain activation in the contrast canonical vs. modified stimuli.
a, Main effect of canonical vs. modified sculptures across conditions rendered onto the MNI brain template. b, Parasagittal and coronal view showing activations of the right insular region in the main effect. c, Activity profile of the right insula. For each condition (O, AJ, PJ) the signal plots show the difference between canonical (C) minus modified (M) sculptures in arbitrary units (a.u), +/− 10% confidence intervals (P-corrected<0.05).
Table 2.
Brain activity reflecting the main effect (a) and the simple effect (b) of Canonical vs. Modified images.
Figure 4.
Brain activations in the contrasts “judged-as-beautiful vs. judged-as-ugly” and “judged-as-ugly vs. judged-as-beautiful” stimuli.
a, Parasagittal, coronal and transaxial sections showing activation of the right amygdala in the interaction stimulus (beautiful vs. ugly)×condition (observation; aesthetic judgment; proportion judgment). b, Activity profile of the right amygdala. For each condition (O = observation, AJ = aesthetic judgment, PJ = proportion judgment) the signal plots show the difference between beautiful (B) minus ugly (U)-as judged sculptures in arbitrary units (a.u), +/− 10% confidence intervals. c, Statistical parametric maps rendered onto the MNI brain template showing activity within left somatomotor cortex in the contrast of ugly vs. beautiful stimuli averaged across the three conditions. d, Activity profile (ugly-beautiful) of the left motor cortex. For each condition (O, AJ, PJ) the signal plots show the difference between ugly (U) minus beautiful (B)-as judged sculptures in arbitrary units (a.u), +/− 10% confidence intervals (P-corrected<0.05).
Table 3.
Brain activity reflecting main effect (a) and interaction (b) of judged-as-ugly vs. judged-as-beautiful images.