Spectral brain signatures of aesthetic natural perception in the alpha and beta frequency bands

Abstract

During our everyday lives, visual beauty is often conveyed by sustained and dynamic visual stimulation, such as when we walk through an enchanting forest or watch our pets playing. Here, I devised an MEG experiment that mimics such situations: Participants viewed 8s videos of everyday situations and rated their beauty. Using multivariate analysis, I linked aesthetic ratings to (1) sustained MEG broadband responses and (2) spectral MEG responses in the alpha and beta frequency bands. These effects were not accounted for by a set of high- and low-level visual descriptors of the videos, suggesting that they are genuinely related to aesthetic perception. My findings provide a first characterization of spectral brain signatures linked to aesthetic experiences in the real world.