{"id":2253,"date":"2014-11-24T23:21:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T01:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br\/english\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2014-11-27T14:26:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T16:26:37","slug":"how-museums-affect-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br\/english\/how-museums-affect-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"How museums affect the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brain<\/a>

Via Wickimedia<\/p><\/div>\n

Nov 2014<\/p>\n

by\u00a0Laura C. Mallonee
\nFrom Hyperallergic.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

It seems self-evident that architecture impacts our emotions. Medieval landowners constructed foreboding castles to strike fear in the heart of potential invaders; churches flooded their buildings with light to encourage heavenly thought. It may be partly for this reason that as much fuss is made today about the design of a museum as the art that it houses. For many, museums are best when they stimulate contemplation.<\/p>\n

But in our day and age, a hunch isn\u2019t much if it isn\u2019t tested, quantified, and generally applauded by the scientific community\u00a0\u2014 which is exactly what a few researchers exploring the psychology of architecture may have achieved.\u00a0As recently reported in\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, a team of researchers at the Catholic University of America (CUA) and the University of Utah have conducted a pilot study that provides evidence for architecture\u2019s power to induce meditation. CUA professor Julio Bermudez\u00a0presented<\/a>\u00a0their initial research, entitled\u00a0\u201cfMRI Study of Architecturally-Induced Contemplative States<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0at the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture in late September.<\/p>\n

The researchers wanted to find out whether people visiting museums, churches, and libraries experience\u00a0similar\u00a0brain activity to\u00a0those practicing meditation.\u00a0If they were able to show that architecture facilitates\u00a0such contemplation,\u00a0it would mean that the benefits of meditation\u00a0can be achieved not only by \u201cinternally-induced (self-directed) methods,\u201d which such research tends to focus on, but also by outwardly imposed ones.<\/p>\n

To test their hypothesis, they created a pilot study in which a homogenous group of 12 white, right-handed, male architects\u00a0with no previous experience meditating\u00a0was\u00a0asked to look at pictures of buildings while receiving fMRI scans that mapped their brain\u2019s neurological responses to what they saw. Each man was given\u00a0six images\u00a0of \u201cordinary\u201d buildings like schools, offices, and houses interspersed with six images of \u201cexperimental\u201d buildings that included\u00a0the Chartres Cathedral,\u00a0La Alhambra, the Pantheon, the Salk Institute, and the Chapel of Ronchamp:<\/p>\n

A building was depicted through 4 images at 20 seconds each (totaling 80 sec) separated from the next set by a 40 sec recover period (gray plate). Each Block started with a Baseline period in which a gray color plate was presented for 60 sec. There was a short questionnaire after each Block and a 20-minute Exit Interview intended to collect behavioral\/psychological data. A second Control came from the published record of neuroscience research on meditation-related practices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The resulting data used regression analysis to provisionally show that contemplative spaces induce \u201cmarkedly distinct\u201d states compared with non-contemplative spaces\u00a0\u2014 at least for white, right-handed, male architects.\u00a0These environments activated unique parts of the brain, particularly the \u201ccortical regions of sensory-motor and emotional integration, non-judgementality, and embodiment.\u201d Ultimately, they allowed subjects to enter into a meditative state \u201cwith diminishing levels of anxiety and mind-wandering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study wasn\u2019t entirely successful in showing that pensive\u00a0architecture produces the exact same effect as meditation. Subjects\u00a0were able to reach deeper levels of meditation when their prefrontal cortex (a part of the brain that controls emotions and impulses) was deactivated, which meant\u00a0that \u201cwhile the phenomenological and neural correlates of the architecturally-induced contemplation share some similarities with internally-generated meditation \u2026 they also exhibit considerable differences that find better correspondence with peak\/flow psycho-somatic states and profound aesthetic experiences.\u201d In other words, a visit to the Morgan Library may calm you down, but it doesn\u2019t stimulate the same parts of your brain that, say, praying does.<\/p>\n

Bermudez told\u00a0The Atlantic\u00a0<\/em>that the goal of the pilot study is to \u201creveal something interesting that warrants additional funding for an extension of the experiment using the general population.\u201d And while that study is yet to be conducted, the pilot still\u00a0offers a satisfactory\u00a0\u201cI-told-you-so\u201d to those who have long championed the spiritual and psychological benefits of museums. Bottom line: the aesthetics of\u00a0space\u00a0matter.<\/p>\n

For articles about museums in Spanish, English and Portuguese, see:<\/p>\n

Salgado, Maur\u00edcio de Mattos\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0Marandino, Martha.\u00a0“The sea in the museum: a perspective on education at aquariums<\/a>.”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>\u00a0[online]. 2014, vol.21, n.3, pp. 867-882.<\/p>\n

Souza, Vanderlei Sebastiao de;\u00a0Dornelles, Rodrigo Ciconet;\u00a0Coimbra, Carlos E.A.\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0Santos, Ricardo Ventura.\u00a0“History of genetics in Brazil: a view from the Museu da Gen\u00e9tica at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul<\/a>.”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>\u00a0[online]. 2013, vol.20, n.2, pp. 675-694. ISSN 0104-5970.<\/p>\n

Ballestero, Diego A.. “Los ‘fueguinos’, Robert Lehmann-Nitsche y el estudio de los onas en la Exposici\u00f3n Nacional de Buenos Aires (1898)<\/a>.”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>\u00a0[online]. 2011, vol.18, n.3, pp. 789-810. ISSN 0104-5970.<\/p>\n

Tag\u00fce\u00f1a, Julia. “Los museos latinoamericanos de ciencia y la equidad<\/a>.”\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, 2005, vol.12, p.419-420. ISSN 0104-5970<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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