Week 7: Neuroscience and Art


This week’s topic, neuroscience and art, was very fascinating to me because it is all individualistic. For example, in Victoria Vesna’s lecture one video she talks about how Franz Joseph Gall discovered the brain through twenty-seven separate organs. These twenty-seven organs are shows on a phrenology chart. He then compared the human brain to a brain of an animal and discovered we share nineteen of these twenty-seven section, and only eight are human specific. This proves that humans as a species are not too far off from animals, our brains are just more developed. The then developed the idea that different parts of the brain get bigger the more you use them. This explains why some people are better than others at math, art, reading, writing etc. He then posed the theory that with this idea, that certain parts of the brain are bigger the more they are used, criminals could be caught through behavioral types.   

Courtesy of: http://izquotes.com/quote/66022

In Victoria Vesna’s second lecture we talk about the idea that the brain never sleeps. Sigmund Freud’s main focus is making the unconscious conscious. His theory includes the idea that the unconscious mind governs behaviors of the conscious mind. He even wrote an entire book “The Interpretation of Dreams” talking about what the unconscious mind means about the conscious mind. He came up with different names for these mindsets; the unconscious mind is ID, the conscious mind is the ego and the conscience mind is the superego. He has helped fields like phycology and psychobiology further their research.

Courtesy of: phrenology chart-http://www.grafficalmuse.com/?p=1445

A more modern idea with neuroscience and art is the discovery that certain taste and sounds can bring up certain memories. Many music artist talk about how they remember what song or album inspired them to become involved in the music industry. Everyone can relate to this idea. Many people find it easy to remember the lyrics of songs that came out 10-20 years ago, yet they cannot remember what they read in their textbook two hours ago. This is because songs and sounds have memories stored in your brain. Personally, I can hear a song and tell you what year it came out in because of the memories I have with it. D.T. Max talks about his in his article Swann’s Hypothesis. He says that this theory has been around forever, but was not confirmed until a few years ago. Teachers here has caught onto this idea and have begun teaching with songs and tones.

Courtesy of: http://www.jungleredwriters.com/2015/06/oh-kaye-chats-about-music-memories-and.html

McLeod, Saul. "Sigmund Freud." 's Theories. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html>. 


Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt1.mov." YouTube. UC Online Program, 17 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt2.mov." YouTube. UC Online Program, 17 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo>.


Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience Pt3." YouTube. UC Online Program, 16 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EX75xoBJ0>.

Swann’s Hypothesis.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Nov. 2007. Web. 10 May 2017.



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