Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

Art will heal what ails you, according to this scattershot treatise on aesthetics and well-being. Johns Hopkins neurologist Magsamen (Family Stories) and Ross, Google’s vice president of hardware design, draw on scientific studies to explain how making and appreciating art, music, dance, theater, and writing affect the brain and promote health. Some of the applications the authors highlight intrigue, such as the success of dance classes in helping Parkinson’s patients improve movement and singing classes in hastening new mothers’ recovery from postpartum depression. Other benefits are more modest and unsurprising: adult coloring books reduce stress and anxiety, and group dancing fosters social bonding. There’s disappointingly sparse insight on neuroscience, as well. For instance, when the authors note that “poetry activates brain areas such as the posterior cingulate cortex and medial temporal lobes,” which “intensify emotions,” the unsurprising takeaway is that poetry elicits an emotional response. Elsewhere, the scientific discussions sometimes edge toward new age mysticism, as when the authors write that the “notes C and G... resonate with the Earth’s core frequency and are known to be soothing vibrations.” This somewhat obvious brief comes up short. Photos. (Mar.)