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It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strange Champs. Today, we're looking for beauty.

You know what it feels like to recognize something beautiful, the quick inhale, the visceral punch of surprise.

Who knows what sparks it? A Beethoven quartet, the Eiffel Tower, your grandmother's patchwork quilt.

Well, in a handful of science labs across the

country, an emerging science of neuroesthetics aims to decode that beauty, and maybe to prove

that we're hardwired for art. Here's Steve Paulson. It seems kind of crazy to think that

brain science can actually explain why we like art.

I mean, think about all the different kinds of art,

from Mayan sculptures to Jackson Pollock drip paintings,

to the minarets of a mosque.

And those are just the visual arts.

So can the study of the neural circuits of the brain really unlock the secrets of art?

You know, I was in a temple in India looking at these different works of art, these sculptures

of gods and goddesses.

And I said, this is a vital part of being human, art, and aesthetics.

So what's going on in your brain?

Why have people not address this?

V.S. Ramachandran is a renowned neuroscientist.

He's famous for his ingenious treatments of various neurological disorders. And a few years ago, he got to wondering if art is more than just a matter of personal taste or even cultural values.

Is the appreciation of aesthetics actually hardwired in the human brain?

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