AUTHOR=Jacobs Richard H. A. H. , Cornelissen Frans W. 

TITLE=An Explanation for the Role of the Amygdala in Aesthetic Judgments

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00080

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2017.00080

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=<p>It has been proposed that the top-down guidance of feature-based attention is the basis for the involvement of the amygdala in various tasks requiring emotional decision-making (Jacobs et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B27">2012a</xref>). Aesthetic judgments are correlated with particular visual features and can be considered emotional in nature (Jacobs et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B25">2016</xref>). Moreover, we have previously shown that various aesthetic judgments result in observers preferentially attending to different visual features (Jacobs et al., <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B28">2010</xref>). Here, we argue that—together—this explains why the amygdalae become active during aesthetic judgments of visual materials. We discuss potential implications and predictions of this theory that can be tested experimentally.</p>