Unit 7 - Neuroscience + Art

“Fascination Happens Deep Within The Brain.” by Team Fascinate.

The topic of neuroscience and the brain is fascinating. As Professor Vesna stated, there are many components to this subject from the mind to the brain to memory. Many figures of the past contributed to neuroscience. For example, Ramon E. Cahall was the founder of the neuron theory and was award the Nobel Prize on the structure of the nervous system. Sigmund Freud had his Freudian theory on psychoanalysis and Carla Gustav Jung had his Jungian theory on the collective unconscious. The four lectures from Vesna and Cohen provided a good history of neuroscience, but I would like to discuss something thought provoking that relates to our perception and art. Is your red the same as my red?

“How Do Humans Perceive Color Defficiency.” by Mihai Andrei.

Color is everywhere and most people don't think much about it; what we see is probably the same for everyone. As stated in the video, “Colour is the eye of the beholder”, as babies develop, they develop color vision. But as they learn the words associated with what is seen, the words actually have impact on how the brain processes them. Potentially language can structure what is seen in the visual world. In their studies with the Himba tribe of Namibia, the tribe have different words for certain categories of color. For example, there are different words for different shades of green and blue fits into one of the words. When trying to distinguish between the shades of green, they were able to pick out the difference instantly while Westerners like myself would have taken a while. But for the shade of green and blue, they had difficulty while Westerners have no problems.

Himba tribe of Namibia Color Test 1 - Shades of Green Easy

Himba tribe of Namibia Color Test 2 - Green + Blue Difficulty

In another video, “Is your red the same as my red?”, describes more in detail about perception and how that is translated in the brain. I can look at a red and you can look at a green, but we can both call it red because that's how we were raised to call it. How will we see how people learn about perception? It's a difficult question. It's also similar to the perception of beauty. Something I believe to be as beautiful can be ugly to someone else. It's very interesting on how the brain processes these information and what contributes to standards. It could possibly be a societal aspect where people are trained to have a certain perception. But there are deviations in this aspect so it's more likely and easier to believe that our brains function differently and define us and our conscious. That is why music and art touches us in different ways, whether it may be the lyrics or the beat or the abstraction.

 

“Is your red the same as my red?” by Vsauce.

Yours truly,

Calvin Cam

Works Cited

Andrei, Mihai. “How Do Humans Perceive Color Defficiency.” ZMEscience. 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/color-defficiency/>.

“Colour is in the eye of the beholder.” PBS. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=30670>.

Frauenfelder, Mark. “How language affects color perception.” boingboing. 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://boingboing.net/2011/08/12/how-language-affects-color-perception.html>.

Landau, Elizabeth. “What the brain draws from art and neuroscience.” CNN. 15 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind/>.

Team Fascinate. “Fascination Happens Deep Within The Brain.” 30 Sept. 2013. <http://www.howtofascinate.com/blog/bid/187873/Fascination-Happens-Deep-Within-The-Brain>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt2.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 17 May. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo>.

Vsauce. “Is your red the same as my red?” Youtube. 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08>.