From the Aesthetic Attitude to the Aesthetic Valve: an Electrophysiological Investigation of the Cognitive and Affective Dimensions of Aesthetic Appreciation Across the Lifespan

Capitalizing on the hypothesis that aesthetic experience may play an evolutionary role in signalling what is relevant in the environment, my PhD thesis explored the connection between aesthetic appreciation and learning processes, focusing on three main dimensions: (a) the developmental trajectory, (b) the bottom-up and top-down processes, and (c) the affective modulation, underlying the experience of beauty. Drawing on learning theories of Aesthetics (Schoeller and Perlovsky, 2016), we recently proposed a model directly linking the experience of beauty with enhanced attention toward external stimuli, motor inhibition, and increased learning dynamics (Sarasso et al. 2020). However, whether this experience is the results of an evolutive process, whether it is also supported by top-down mechanisms, and whether it can modulate the perceivers’ affective state, remain open questions. To address these gaps, I conducted five experiments using behavioural and electrophysiological measures (i.e., Electrodermal activity and Electroencephalography). The first experiment investigated aesthetic modulation on newborns’ perceptual learning performance (a). The second and third experiments examined the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processes during aesthetic experience (b). The fourth and fifth experiments explored affective modulation, focusing on the spectrum between anxiety and curiosity. The findings revealed that: (a) newborns’ perceptual learning performance is enhanced by aesthetic sensitivity to consonance, (b) top-down processes play a key role in aesthetic experiences, raising the Aesthetic attitude, and (c) aesthetic experiences move the experiential continuum from anxiety toward curiosity. This work advances our understanding of aesthetic experience, highlighting its role in modulating both cognitive and affective dimensions