From empathy to mirror neurons and back to aesthetics

Abstract

This chapter approaches aesthetics anew by considering empathy and Einfühlung, “feeling ourselves into” a work of art or architecture. The key neuroscience is the discovery of mirror neurons in monkeys that inspired the discovery of mirror systems in humans. Unsupervised, supervised, and reinforcement learning, each based on a different rule for synaptic plasticity, are presented as background for a computational model of how mirror neuron wiring is learned. Mirror neurons may serve social interaction, but they also self-monitor in acquiring new behaviors. This is exemplified in modeling how adaptive sequences of behavior may be mastered through learning the desirability and executability of actions. Such opportunistic scheduling complements the role of scripts. Empathy is linked to mirror systems but also depends on systems beyond the mirror. Returning to Einfühlung, we explore how a motor component may enrich our aesthetic appreciation by recognizing the actions and emotions of protagonists in a representational painting, or by gaining some feeling for the actions of the artist, sculptor, or architect in creating the work. Finally, case studies are sampled, including those in neuroaesthetics seeking neural correlates for aesthetic appreciation, that contribute to a tool kit for assessing the experience of buildings to enrich future design.