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Illustration by Adam Rosendahl
When we engage with art, the same parts of our brain light up as when we use social skills, researchers have found by analyzing thousands of brain images. “Art recruits the same brain networks as complex social behavior,” wrote the authors of the article “More Than Meets the Eye: Art Engages the Social Brain,” published in the Frontiers of Neuroscience in 2022.
The scientist authors describe how the brain processes art: “Unlike basic emotions, deciphering the personal and symbolic meaning of an artwork is ambiguous and full of uncertainty, requiring an imaginative entry into the mind of the artist as well as an open-minded exploration of the symbolism communicated by the artwork.”
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The researchers mapped heightened neural activity in multiple cognitive networks when we experience art, which play “a crucial role in creating internal models of ourselves and others in relationship to the world around us,” they write. The findings support the idea that incorporating art into events can promote stronger connections between people and help set the stage for creative thought processes.
Creative human expression developed as a way to make meaning and laid the foundation for culture and community for our prehistoric ancestors, write Susan Magsamen, founder of the International Arts + Mind Lab at the Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Ivy Ross, chief design officer for consumer devices at Google, in their book Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Creative expression and the arts still serve a core purpose, they wrote, of generating new thoughts and ideas, mirroring to one another what is important, and “weaving together common threads of humanity.”
Barbara Palmer is Convene’s deputy editor
Artful Experiences
This article and those listed below are part of Convene’s June 2026 issue cover and CMP Series story package.