Why Art? The Role of Arts in Arts and Health

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2023 Apr 10

PMID 37034911

Authors

Bjorn Vickhoff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This article is an answer to a report called "What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?" The authors conclude that the arts have an impact on mental and physical health. Yet, the question of the role of the arts remains unanswered. What is and what is not an art effect? Recently, theory has inspired articles on the perception of art. These articles have not yet received attention in the field of Arts and Health. Scholars in psychosomatic medicine have argued for an approach based on recent work in enactive embodied theory to investigate the connection between the body and the mind. The present article examines how key concepts in this theory relate to art. This leads to a discussion of art in terms of empathy-the relation between the internal state of the artist and the internal state of the beholder. I exemplify with a conceptual framework of musical empathy. Implications for health are addressed.

Citing Articles

Co-creating a person-centered creative engagement intervention for Parkinson's care.

Spee B, Stap T, Plijnaer M, Pasman G, Zeggio S, Duits A Front Psychol. 2025; 15:1469120.

PMID: 39881707 PMC: 11774897. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1469120.

Role of arts in women's cancer awareness.

Vinay Kumar R Gynecol Oncol Rep. 2024; 53:101403.

PMID: 38746779 PMC: 11091533. DOI: 10.1016/j.gore.2024.101403.

Ethical questioning in arts and health-based research: propositions and reflections.

Afolabi T, Kozak L, Smith C Front Sociol. 2023; 8:1249606.

PMID: 38050563 PMC: 10693494. DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1249606.

References

Panksepp J, Lahvis G . Rodent empathy and affective neuroscience. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011; 35(9):1864-75. PMC: 3183383. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.05.013. View

Anderson M, Kinnison J, Pessoa L . Describing functional diversity of brain regions and brain networks. Neuroimage. 2013; 73:50-8. PMC: 3756684. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.01.071. View

Rohaut B, Naccache L . Disentangling conscious from unconscious cognitive processing with event-related EEG potentials. Rev Neurol (Paris). 2017; 173(7-8):521-528. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurol.2017.08.001. View

Grabowska M, Jeans R, Steeves J, van Swinderen B . Oscillations in the central brain of are phase locked to attended visual features. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020; 117(47):29925-29936. PMC: 7703559. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010749117. View

Fothergill A, Edwards D, Burnard P . Stress, burnout, coping and stress management in psychiatrists: findings from a systematic review. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2004; 50(1):54-65. DOI: 10.1177/0020764004040953. View

Merom D, Ding D, Stamatakis E . Dancing Participation and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality: A Pooled Analysis of 11 Population-Based British Cohorts. Am J Prev Med. 2016; 50(6):756-760. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.01.004. View

Pollok B, Boysen A, Krause V . The effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha and beta frequency on motor learning. Behav Brain Res. 2015; 293:234-40. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2015.07.049. View

di Pellegrino G, Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G . Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study. Exp Brain Res. 1992; 91(1):176-80. DOI: 10.1007/BF00230027. View

Stickley T, Parr H, Atkinson S, Daykin N, Clift S, De Nora T . Arts, health & wellbeing: reflections on a national seminar series and building a UK research network. Arts Health. 2017; 9(1):14-25. PMC: 5215041. DOI: 10.1080/17533015.2016.1166142. View

10.

Gelding R, Thompson W, Johnson B . Musical imagery depends upon coordination of auditory and sensorimotor brain activity. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):16823. PMC: 6856354. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53260-9. View

11.

Moussard A, Bigand E, Belleville S, Peretz I . Music as a mnemonic to learn gesture sequences in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014; 8:294. PMC: 4026693. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00294. View

12.

Caviezel M, Reichert C, Sadeghi Bahmani D, Linnemann C, Liechti C, Bieri O . The Neural Mechanisms of Associative Memory Revisited: fMRI Evidence from Implicit Contingency Learning. Front Psychiatry. 2020; 10:1002. PMC: 7008231. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01002. View

13.

Tyng C, Amin H, Saad M, Malik A . The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory. Front Psychol. 2017; 8:1454. PMC: 5573739. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454. View

14.

Vickhoff B, Malmgren H, Astrom R, Nyberg G, Ekstrom S, Engwall M . Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers. Front Psychol. 2013; 4:334. PMC: 3705176. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00334. View

15.

Nilsson L, Nyberg L, Klingberg T, Aberg C, Persson J, Roland P . Activity in motor areas while remembering action events. Neuroreport. 2000; 11(10):2199-201. DOI: 10.1097/00001756-200007140-00027. View

16.

Koelsch S, Vuust P, Friston K . Predictive Processes and the Peculiar Case of Music. Trends Cogn Sci. 2018; 23(1):63-77. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.006. View

17.

Liu X, Liu Y, Shi H, Zheng M . Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Musical Aesthetic Emotion Processing. Front Psychol. 2021; 12:648062. PMC: 8334183. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648062. View

18.

Neuenschwander S, Singer W . Long-range synchronization of oscillatory light responses in the cat retina and lateral geniculate nucleus. Nature. 1996; 379(6567):728-32. DOI: 10.1038/379728a0. View

19.

Schubotz R, von Cramon D . Sequences of abstract nonbiological stimuli share ventral premotor cortex with action observation and imagery. J Neurosci. 2004; 24(24):5467-74. PMC: 6729336. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1169-04.2004. View

20.

Mastandrea S, Fagioli S, Biasi V . Art and Psychological Well-Being: Linking the Brain to the Aesthetic Emotion. Front Psychol. 2019; 10:739. PMC: 6458291. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00739. View