Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

This week, we explored how neuroscience is connected to art. I think that one of the best people to show the connection between these two cultures is Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Santiago made beautiful pictures that are drawings of the cells. These drawings were a game changer, and he won a Nobel prize for it. The drawings are also still used in some textbooks today. They are so beautiful that even people who don't fully understand what they are would like to hang them up as art pieces.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Drawing

Another example of art and neuroscience coming together is by Suzanne Anker and Giovanni Frazzetto. They took fMRI scans and overlaid butterflies on them. The butterflies are the same on each scan, but there are different ink blots that change the way the whole image looks. It is truly beautiful to look at. 

Suzanne Anker Artwork

Our guest speaker this week, Siddharth Ramakrishnan, spoke about how our mind's eye is able to visualize things, but it's different for every person. Sometimes, we are able to visualize things very clearly but other times it is more difficult. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and learning all about his work.


Siddharth Ramakrishnan brain drawing

This was a very interesting week, and I am so glad I got to learn about how neuroscience and art are interconnected. I would have never thought these two subjects would be related, but there is so much beauty within our brain. 

Sources/Refrences

Anker, Suzanne. “MRI Butterfly.” Suzanne Anker, lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/GkYzaSBVdkp1eMA6uOjmgQEXEVcKhCRxZSamU7lMB-SxO9RO_7X4BB5J7drIuD3fmvPtie0SmMllnvFxHMiphzUlqMFlV0wcUj9DI4GAy-oYJxFWkDJkJXR0.

“Brain Image.” Brain Mystic, static.wixstatic.com/media/06d4ee_ea033025b51e4a8387cd30fe90c0860c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_728,h_448,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/brain4.webp.

Connie Blaszczyk | Center for Art. “3Q: The Interface between Art and Neuroscience.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, news.mit.edu/2019/3-questions-sarah-schwettmann-interface-between-art-and-neuroscience-0416.

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. “Neuroculture.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, www.nature.com/articles/nrn2736.

Jiang, Kevin. “Butterflies of the Soul.” Butterflies of the Soul | Harvard Medical School, 30 Mar. 2018, hms.harvard.edu/news/butterflies-soul#:~:text=At%20least%20part%20of%20the,%E2%80%9Cbutterflies%20of%20the%20soul.%E2%80%9D.

Ramachandran, Vilayanur. “3 clues to understanding your brain.” TED, uploaded by TED2007, Mar.    2007, https://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_3_clues_to_understanding_your_brain#t-1092702

Ramón y Cajal, Santiago. “Nervous System Illustration.” The Public Domain Review, the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/collections/illustrations-of-the-nervous-system-golgi-and-cajal/golgi-olfactory-top-thumb.jpg?

Tucker, Abigail. “How Does the Brain Process Art?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-does-the-brain-process-art-80541420/.


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