Artistic Expression and Neuroscience.
How the artistic process elicits emotion and feeling on a biological level and improves overall wellbeing.
It is commonly suggested that humans are thinking entities that feel, rather than feeling entities that think. The latter explanation seemingly suited, that human beings are feeling entities that think. This due to initial processing of external stimuli that is filtered through the reptilian brain, responsible for eliciting emotional responses in the face of stimuli, resulting in irrational reactions. Emotions are going to happen to you as surely as your heart is going to beat and your lungs are going to extract oxygen from the from the air you breath, you cannot stop the myriad of emotions elicited, its biologically impossible. Emotions are resourceful biological signposts/signifiers that have evolved along with humans.
Emotions are the initial response to environmental stimuli, inner needs and drives, while feelings are the perception of what your body is experiencing. The emotion is what initially occurs in the brain/body, the feeling secondary as an awareness of emotional states arises. Emotions precede our conscious recognition of a feeling, and often those emotional states can reside outside of conscious awareness. In comparison to other animals humans have a more complex cerebral cortex supporting increased levels of abstract representation related to our intrapersonal worlds, allowing for more nuanced range of feelings. These nuances evident in artistic expression across the board and studied more broadly under “neuroaesthetics”, a discipline that focuses on how art impacts humans cognitively, emotionally and physically. Deeper, how individuals interact, perceive and interpret works of art.
What many researchers have learned over the decade from a neurobiological perspective is that multiple systems in the body and brain work together with the world, our lives a constant process of interpreting data on an instinctual, unconscious and conscious level. An example being in a public space entertaining a menial task, scanning food items, in the background a song that was popular when you were younger plays through the speakers. This particular song elicits a feeling of nostalgia due to the biological release of feel good hormone dopamine, triggering a response in the dopamine reward network. Suddenly you remember skipping around the playground singing the song until your hearts content. The acoustic causing a visceral memory. We are continually presented with stimuli that has an effect on our perceptions and mental states.
Our senses continually creating a feedback loop to configure unique impressions and feelings regarding the external world. The strong sensory inputs assimilated by artistic endeavours engages multiple systems that increase the capability of assessing interconnected pathways that allow for emotional processing, thus facilitating the expression of feelings and access to the unconscious psyche. This is why artistic expression and engagement with the arts is beneficial to overall well-being as it targets multiple channels of energy, and interacts with both the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche.