SynthesisNeuroImage2011
Naturalizing aesthetics: brain areas for aesthetic appraisal across sensory modalities.
Synthesis in NeuroImage, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural correlates of negative aesthetic evaluations in visual art: a neuroimaging meta-analysis.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Pooled it
- Aesthetic evaluation underpinning brand love relationship development: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis and multivariate analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Economic value in the Brain: A meta-analysis of willingness-to-pay using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- How universal is preference for visual curvature? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Seeking the "Beauty Center" in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Potential reporting bias in fMRI studies of the brain.PloS one · 2013Pooled it
- Psychedelic Art and Implications for Mental Health: Randomized Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Dynamics of brain networks in the aesthetic appreciation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Trial
- Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Trial
- Trial
- Why do we believe in fairies?Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2026Review
- Brain network mapping of structural and functional alterations associated with alexithymia.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Latent neural architecture organising shared aesthetic evaluations of visual artworks.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Whole-Brain Fractional Anisotropy, Centered on the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus, Is Positively Correlated With Urban Aesthetic Perception.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Article
- Inferring Cinematic Aesthetic Biases from the Statistics of Early Movies.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Toward a neuroaesthetics of interactions: Insights from dance on the aesthetics of individual and interacting bodies.iScience · 2025Review
- The impact of negative emotions on product purchase decisions: a study of watch design.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- A Computational Analysis of the Effect of Hard Choices on the Individuation of Values.Brain sciences · 2025Article
70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We present here the most comprehensive analysis to date of neuroaesthetic processing by reporting the results of voxel-based meta-analyses of 93 neuroimaging studies of positive-valence aesthetic appraisal across four sensory modalities. The results demonstrate that the most concordant area of activation across all four modalities is the right anterior insula, an area typically associated with visceral perception, especially of negative valence (disgust, pain, etc.). We argue that aesthetic processing is, at its core, the appraisal of the valence of perceived objects. This appraisal is in no way limited to artworks but is instead applicable to all types of perceived objects. Therefore, one way to naturalize aesthetics is to argue that such a system evolved first for the appraisal of objects of survival advantage, such as food sources, and was later co-opted in humans for the experience of artworks for the satisfaction of social needs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.