Your Brain Treats Human Beauty Differently from Artistic Beauty
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about how your brain treats beautiful faces differently from beautiful objects; why the town of Baarle sits on one of the world’s most complex international borders; and what might happen if you’re eating during a car accident.
Your brain treats beautiful faces differently from beautiful objects by Kelsey Donk
- Our Brains Have Two Distinct “Beauty Centres”: One For Art And One For Faces. (2020, November 11). Research Digest; Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/11/11/our-brains-have-two-distinct-beauty-centres-one-for-art-and-one-for-faces/
- Chuan-Peng, Hu, et al. "Seeking the “Beauty Center” in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies of Beautiful Human Faces and Visual Art." Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience (2020): 1-16. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-020-00827-z
The Town of Baarle Sits on One of the World's Most Complex International Borders by Ashley Gabriel
- Kaid Benfield. (2012, February 17). The Most Complicated Border Town in the World. CityLab; CityLab. https://web.archive.org/web/20171215175448/https://www.citylab.com/equity/2012/02/most-complicated-border-town-world/1267/
- Great Big Story. (2018). The Town In Two Countries [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP4OL2i6t-Q
Eating during a car crash by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Stephen)
- Lundy, D. W., & Lourie, G. M. (1998). Two open forearm fractures after airbag deployment during low speed accidents. Clinical orthopaedics and related research, (351), 191-195. https://europepmc.org/article/med/9646762
- CONTENT NOTE: GRUESOME IMAGE. Ronnie, D., Emecheta, I. E., & Kevin, H. (2011). Missile launch pad: an unusual consequence of airbag deployment. Case Reports, 2011(feb17 1), bcr1120103522–bcr1120103522. https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr.11.2010.3522
- Wil Fulton. (2017, September 19). Why Eating While Driving Should Be Illegal. Thrillist; Thrillist. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/distracted-driving-eating
- Eating While Driving - DecidetoDrive. (2014). DecidetoDrive. https://www.decidetodrive.org/distracted-driving-dangerous/eating-driving/
- 3 Dangerous Activities You Might Do While Driving | Lytx. (2014). Lytx.com. https://www.lytx.com/en-us/news-events/press-release/2014/lytx-data-finds-three-dangerous-activities-you-may
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from |
| 0:05.0 | Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about how your |
| 0:10.0 | brain treats beautiful faces differently from beautiful objects, and why the town of |
| 0:14.9 | Barle sits on one of the world's most complex international borders. |
| 0:19.7 | We'll also answer a listener question about what might happen if you're eating during a car accident. |
| 0:24.8 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:27.8 | For decades, neuroscientists have wondered whether the human brain has a beauty center. |
| 0:34.0 | Does one region of the brain light up whenever we see something beautiful? |
| 0:37.7 | Whether that's a sunset or Idris Elba? |
| 0:40.7 | Well, according to a new analysis of FMMRI brain scans from almost a thousand people, the answer is yes and no. |
| 0:48.0 | We may have two beauty centers instead of just one. |
| 0:52.0 | And they see that sunset and the guy... beauty centers instead of just one. |
| 0:53.0 | And they see that sunset and the guy that should be the next James Bond differently. |
| 0:58.0 | That's right. Your brain treats beautiful faces differently from beautiful objects. |
| 1:04.0 | Scientists from Shanghai University in China |
| 1:07.0 | looked at almost 50 studies where researchers had taken |
| 1:10.0 | fMRI brain scans of almost a thousand people between the ages of 18 and 50. |
| 1:16.0 | Their brains were scanned while they looked at beautiful things, sometimes beautiful |
| 1:20.0 | human faces, sometimes beautiful art. |
| 1:23.4 | The researchers combed through the brain scans for any overlap in brain activity. |
| 1:28.2 | If the same part of the brain lit up in every participant when they admired something beautiful, that would be evidence that there is actually a beauty center in the brain. |
| 1:37.2 | It turned out that yes, the same parts of the brain lit up in similar situations, but the region was different for faces than for art. |
... |
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