Dynamic neural representations of scene beauty are relatively unaffected by stimulus timing and task

Abstract

Understanding the neural correlates of aesthetic experiences in natural environments is a central question in neuroaesthetics. A previous EEG study (Kaiser, 2022) identified early and temporally sustained neural representations of visual scene beauty. These results were obtained with long presentation durations (1,450 ms) and with explicit beauty judgments, rendering it unclear how presentation time and task demands shape the neural correlates of scene beauty. In two EEG experiments, we replicated this study while varying presentation time and task. Experiment 1 tested whether reducing stimulus presentation time from 1,450 ms to 100 ms altered neural representations of beauty. Experiment 2 examined whether beauty-related representations prevailed when participants performed an orthogonal task instead of explicitly judging beauty. Representational similarity analysis revealed that beauty-related neural representations emerged early (within 150 - 200 ms post-stimulus) and were sustained over time, in line with previous findings. Critically, we found that neither reduced presentation time nor the absence of an explicit beauty judgment significantly altered beauty-related neural dynamics. These results suggest that the neural correlates of scene beauty are relatively robust to stimulus presentation and task regimes, providing a potential correlate of the spontaneous perception of beauty in natural environments.