A Narrative Scoping Review of Neuroaesthetics and Objective Understanding of Human Appearance

Neuroaesthetics has made meaningful progress in unraveling the neurological mechanisms involved in the perception of various arts, landscapes, and architecture. Only recently, neural processes of artistic valuation and judgments have been investigated regarding the aesthetics of the human body. The current narrative review intended to summarize the recent advances made in this field.

A literature review of PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and Web of Science databases was conducted. Cerebral areas involved in aesthetic experience and judgment are reviewed, and the biological neural basis of judgment processes are analyzed in the multidimensional preference space with specific attention to visual perception and beauty appraisal of the human body.

Twenty-nine experimental studies specifically related to the neurobiological basis of aesthetic appraisal and judgments regarding the human face and body were identified.

Aesthetic judgment emerges from the interaction among emotion-valuation, sensory-motor, and meaning-knowledge processes. There is objective evidence that human body beauty perception is shaped by natural selection and activates brain regions distinct from those activated by visual arts. It may still be early to grasp all the implications of neuroaesthetics, and much research is still needed. However, progress in the field holds promise for generating a more holistic understanding that will most probably have an impact on aesthetic interventions, which must aim to reproduce the characteristics of ideal mates. It also holds promise for possibly quantifying the outcomes of aesthetic interventions objectively.