Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

by Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross

A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts--and how this knowledge can improve our health, enable us to flourish, and build stronger communities.

"This book blew my mind!"--Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit

Many of us think of the arts as entertainment--a luxury of some kind. In Your Brain on Art, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show how activities from painting and dancing to expressive writing, architecture, and more are essential to our lives.

We're on the verge of a cultural shift in which the arts can deliver potent, accessible, and proven solutions for the well-being of everyone. Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. They expand our understanding of how playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning; the vibrations of a tuning fork create sound waves to counteract stress; virtual reality can provide cutting-edge therapeutic benefit; and interactive exhibits dissolve the boundaries between art and viewers, engaging all of our senses and strengthening memory. Doctors have even been prescribing museum visits to address loneliness, dementia, and many other physical and mental health concerns.

Your Brain on Art is a portal into this new understanding about how the arts and aesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities, and mend an aching planet.

Featuring conversations with artists such as David Byrne, Ren�e Fleming, and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson, Your Brain On Art is an authoritative guide neuroaesthetics. The book weaves a tapestry of breakthrough research, insights from multidisciplinary pioneers, and compelling stories from people who are using the arts to enhance their lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Psychology, Science, Health, Self Help, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 2023

About the author

Director of Interdisciplinary Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Brain Science Institute. She works across the university and beyond to collaborate on programs that bring evidence-based brain science knowledge and practice to a range of communities. Susan Magsamen is an award-winning writer and advisor on family and children’s issues with a special interest in creativity and learning. She is founder and president of Curiosityville and FamilyStories. Her body of work has earned hundreds of national awards and recognition from child development experts and parenting associations, including Oppenheim Awards, Parents’ Choice, Family Fun, National Association of Parenting Publications Awards, Hearthsong, and the prestigious Canadian Toy Council Award. Susan was the Chair of the Wondertime Magazine Editorial Advisory Council, a national child development magazine for families that shares relevant research in practical ways. In 1988, Susan founded Curiosity Kits, a multi-sensory, hands-on learning activity company. Susan’s books and programs have been called "a beautiful celebration of family life", empowering parents and children to connect with each other, with other families and with the world around them. Susan’s work is widely recognized as fostering and enhancing the ways we learn, play, create, and grow as individuals, families and communities.

Susan's approach to creating enriching learning environments at home, after-school and in the community combines interdisciplinary, evidence-based research with practical, applicable ideas and programs. She regularly brings together scientists, educators, parents, psychologists, advocates, policy makers, educational media and others to share their perspectives on topics that matter including education, family life, careers and more. Then, through a series of communications platforms – from books to videos, radio to speaker series – Susan brings this knowledge, insight and ideas to those who need it to inform, inspire and educate. In her capacity as director of Interdisciplinary Programs at Johns Hopkins University’s Brain Sciences Institute, she fosters dialogue among educators, families and researchers in the brain sciences.

Susan is president of Play for Tomorrow and the Ultimate Block Party and co-director of the Center for Re-Imaging Children’s Learning and Education (CiRCLE) at Temple University and one of the founders of the Ultimate Block Party and L_rn. She co-founded the Neuro-Education Initiative at Johns Hopkins School of Education and serves on national and international boards for several organizations, including AEMS (Arts Education in Maryland Schools). Susan is a recent guest editor for the IMBES (International Mind, Brain and Education Society) on arts, creativity and learning. Author of seven books for families, Susan recently published with National Geographic The Classic Treasury of Childhood Wonders.

Susan received Masters degrees in Communications and Business from Johns Hopkins University.

Susan and her husband, Rick Huganir, professor and director of the Department of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University live in an old, converted mill with their two gentle and loving lab dogs and big cats. Their four children are all amazingly creative including Nikki a graphic designer, Sam a composer and musician, Adam a self-described renaissance and gadget guy, and Ben, a creative writer and athlete.

Reviews

[Mary Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many thanks to Random House for the review copy.

Uh oh. Let me begin by saying that I agree with Magsamen and Ross's core gospel that art is good for people, and I was looking forward to a scientific study of the topic. So where did we go wrong?

As I was reading this book, which builds a scientific case for art by talking to scholars, citing academic articles, providing case studies, etc. I was bothered by a little voice in the back of my mind asking "Why, with all of these sources, does this sound like woo?"
After thinking about it, I realized the following:
Part of it comes down to authorial voice. Magsamen and Ross write with a breathless enthusiasm that I primarily associate with new-age gurus talking about natal charts. The tone is excitable, twee, and earnest to the point of being uncomfortable. Their writing is also sprinkled with vaguely new-agey sounding appeals to "ancient wisdom practices from many cultures," as well as using contemporary indigenous people as examples of "ancient" practices.
There is also an uncomfortable refusal to acknowledge that as much as art can heal us, art can also be harmful. There is no acknowledgment in this book of art's colonial power, gentrifying power, traumatizing power, or anything else besides its' healing power. This is not honest.
In some ways, it reminded me of self-help books: a single, deceptively simple solution for immensely complex issues. Their definition of art is flexible enough to include everything, a single soundwave in a lab can be art, but so can nature, gardening, cooking, etc. Not to be annoying, but if your definition of art is so broad that it encompasses basically everything, then what are you actually saying?

But the real downfall of this book is that it presents the glaringly obvious as new. There is a frankly laughable portion of the conclusion that asks us to "Imagine just one day in your life where the science and practices outlined in this book come to fruition, where arts and aesthetics are seamlessly integrated."
Are you ready for this?
You will... have herbs in your kitchen, drink tea or coffee, sing in the shower and the car, pick up a hobby, look out your window at nature, and maybe after work go see a movie or a performance.
Revolutionary. Why has no one thought of that before?

[Amanda Rafuse]

I don’t rate books I DNF (unless I stop because they are hateful), but like to note to myself (and others) why I stopped. Mostly, this book just felt so obvious and earnest. At least to me. Others may be totally enlightened by its message (yes, art is good for the mind, body, soul, communities, society) and so I’m grateful it’s out there to show to school boards and government funders when they determine cutting arts programs or restricting the NEA is sound policy for creating a vibrant citizenry and empowering a healthy society, but it was not a message I need: I am already a firm member of that choir already. So thank you to the authors for writing it — it will live on my shelf to loan or give to ass hats I meet who idiotically don’t get the connection between a healthy, happy life and creativity. What I want is the book that says how to change centuries of systemic scaffolding that allows people to make money the only measure of success. I know those are out there…

[Victoria | · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross is going to be a HUGE hit in the nonfiction community! I couldn't put this one down. If you liked or resonated with The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (who is quoted within the book), you'll be absolutely fascinated by this work of art in itself. I truly felt like this book was speaking to me with every turn of the page. As someone who struggles with mental health due to SA and childhood trauma and someone who is currently exploring the arts, this book was a wealth of information and an absolute treat!
I really enjoyed the easy to digest writing style and the way the book is organized into smaller sections. The book presents examples of how "the arts and aesthetics" are utilized to help many individuals cope with traumatic events, daily stressors, mental health, end of life, pain, etc. Recent studies have shown that engaging in the arts has an effect on multiple physiological and neural systems within the human body. Art can help heal the body, mind, and spirit.
It was fascinating learning about the different types of art, the programs out there that are offering a type of art therapy, and especially, the ways our brains work when we are actively engaging in these activities.
Overall, it's an incredible read! I highly recommend it if you enjoy reading about art, mental health, healthcare/medicine, and neurology. A new favorite!

[India M. Clamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The science of neuro-aesthetics offers wisdom in how art may transform the brain. The idea to many on how art can change neural pathways and improve concentration is akin to a puzzle. Transformation happens in our engagement with art and helps us feel better.

Thinking back to the the first long gaze at "The Salk Institute." And pondering the tragically symmetrical lines inhabiting "Villa La Rotunda" in Vincenza, Veneto, Italy imparting the viewer with multi-sensory brain stimulation.

After listening and reading we come to clearly recognize an association between how being involved in the arts for as little as 45 minutes may reduce stress and serve to extend our life by 10 years. Playing music assists in the melioration of cognitive skills and learning. Definite read.

[Diane Ebbole · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good enough, but I felt it could have been a magazine article and not much lost...

[Makmild · Rating 3 out of 5]

จริงๆ เลิกเชื่อในศิลปะมานานแล้ว เลิกตั้งแต่เรียนสถาปัตย์ (อ้าว) รู้สึกศิลปะแล้วต้องอธิบายเนี่ยมันก็เพื่อทำมาหากิน (ไม่ผิด ถูกต้องแล้ว คนเราต้องทำมาหากิน) มันเฟก มันหลอกลวง (อันนี้ผิด) เลยไม่เชื่อในศิลปะเลย แต่มันมีช่วงนึงที่เราเครียดๆ (มีช่วงไหนไม่เครียดบ้าง ถามก่อน เห้อ รสชาติความเป็นผู้ใหญ่ไม่อร่อยเลย) ควบคุมอารมณ์ตัวเองค่อนข้างยาก แบบหงุดหงิดบ่อย (ตอนนี้ไม่เป็น?) เลยคุยๆ กับเพื่อน (คนแปลเล่มนี้แหละ แต่คุยก่อนเพื่อนแปล) เพื่อนบอกก็วาดรูปมั้ย (ตอนนู้นยังไม่เริ่มวิ่ง) ก็เลยเออ วาดรูป ที่แปลว่า วาดกะต้อกกะแต้กไปเรื่อย ไม่ใช่ที่วาดแบบลงไอจีหรือทำเพื่อเป้าหมายอะไรบางอย่าง แค่เอาสีมาระบายเฉยๆ หลังจากนั้นก็ทำทุกวัน ไม่ได้คิดอะไรมาก ไม่ได้วัดผลด้วยว่ามันช่วยเราจริงหรือเปล่า แต่รู้สึกเลยว่า "ช่วงเวลาที่วาด" มันหายเครียดจริง มันปลดปล่อย และมันอิสระ และมันสนุก

เออ ก็เลยเพิ่งนึกได้ว่าศิลปะมันสนุกนะ ที่เราไม่สนุก (จนพาลอคติ) เพราะตอนเรียนมันกดดันมาก (มากมากมาก) นี่น่าจนหลงลืมและละเลยมันไปเลย แล้วศิลปะมันไม่ได้มีแค่การวาดรูป การเต้น ฟังเพลง เขียน บทกวี ก็คือศิลปะหมดเลย แล้วมันเยียวยาจริงๆ ในเล่มก็เลยมีหลักฐาน (?) อ้างอิงทางวิทยาศาสตร์ว่า นี่ๆ แก เห็นมั้ย เขาทำวิจัยมาแล้วว้อย ไม่เชื่อก็ต้องเชื่อ ไม่ได้มโน ไม่ได้โมเม มันมีเหตุและผลที่ทำให้ศิลปะนั้นทำให้ชีวิตยืนยาว (แม้จะทำให้ศิลปินชีวิตสั้น ท่ดๆ ไม่ใช่ โมเน่ก็อายุยืนนะ)

อาจจะมีคนแย้ง เห้ย เราไม่อาร์ต เรามีพรสวรรค์ด้านนี้ ในเล่มก็อธิบายไว้อย่างชัดเจน (แต่ลืมว่ายังไง) ก็ขอสรุปเอาเองตามภาษาว่า ไม่เป็นไร ก็ค่อยๆ เสพแบบที่เราชอบ ดูหนังก็ใช่ ฟังเพลงก็ใช่ เต้นบ้าๆบอๆคนเดียวก็ใช่ วาดรูปก้อกๆแก้กๆคนเดียวก็ใช่ อย่าไปคิดมาก ปล่อยให้จิตใจเราได้รับอิสระบ้าง ไม่ต้องวัด kpi ไม่ต้องวัดว่าคนจะชอบมั้ยชอบ ปล่อยให้ใจเราทะยานในช่วงเวลานั้นก็พอ (ไม่ได้ใช้แชทจีพีทีเขียนนะเว้ย)

[Sam B · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Your Brain On Art” is a good choice for anyone interested in exactly what the title describes. If you want to learn more about how beauty rewires your brain, or how vital the arts are for building and sustaining communities, or the healing power of arts and aesthetics, this absolutely is the book for you. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in learning more. I also loved the mention of MedRhythms, a really incredible company in my home state of Maine that is doing great work in neurologic music therapy!
The thing that took some enjoyment away from this one for me is how the authors seemed to leap between different scientific concepts extraordinarily rapidly and almost at random - I’m concerned that readers from a non-scientific background will struggle to grasp some of the concepts presented, hence the 3-star rating.
I also think I need to stop picking books like this one. I’m always very excited to read them, but since I majored in neuroscience and music in college, have been a musician my entire life, and am now in medical school, these books simply don’t introduce much that I haven’t already learned, or actually overlap with my course work. I prefer reading to be an escape from that, so sadly this one didn’t quite reach the level of enjoyment I was hoping for.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Annora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off really interesting, then got less and less interesting. Ended up giving up 2 chapters from the end, bit of a shame, was really looking forward to this book! :(

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My step-daughter didn’t really get on with school. It didn’t work for her creativity; instead she loved to paint and make clothes. She ended up skipping her final year but still won a place to study fashion design. COVID struck in her first year of university. She found fashion by Zoom impossible and quit. For the next year she mostly lived in her bedroom, but she continued to paint. Some of her pictures were incredible, but she kept painting over them and moving on to the next scene. This made me angry. Those pictures were amazing, but they were lost. As a writer you are always left with something, a page in a note book, a draft with scribbled comments, a file on a computer. For my step-daughter it was a daily changing rectangle hung on her wall.
Your Brain on Art suddenly played this back to me. The story of the artist Judy Tuwaletstiwa and her time in New Mexico where she observed Ancestral Puebloan sites called Kivas – circular underground ceremonial rooms. Rich evocative murals were painted on the walls, and when the ceremonial cycle was completed they were white-washed over and a new one started. Hundreds of murals lay under the textured surface of the walls.
This inspired Tuwaletstiwa to use the same technique to make her own art. Make a painting, photograph it, then whitewash and make another. ‘…letting go of each painting you can let go of self-criticism.’ She ended up with huge white six-by-four canvass and a roll of film.
With the images she loved, those that brought her healing and honesty, she might sit with them for three days before covering them over. She did the same with those that spoke of wound or shadow and this helped her to gain a perspective into their unique beauty.

It was about fixing trauma. I had no idea, but I was glad that I never voiced my inner anger at my step-daughter’s lost paintings, only my deep admiration for the ones I saw. That healing process does not happen in a straight line, but unfolds.


Your Brain on Art is a perfect book for those who love a good digression. It is full of fascinating asides about how our brain works and what has an influence on our emotions. Just from a scan of the chapter heading – Cultivating Well Being, Restoring Mental Health, Healing the Body, Amplifying Learning, and Flourishing – you can see where the book aims its scholarship. We begin with Anatomy of the Arts, but just before that is a short survey which invites the reader to answer fourteen questions to establish your aesthetic appreciation, intense aesthetic experience and creative behaviour. How you respond and how you engage.

Your smell, taste, vision, hearing and touch produce biological reactions at staggering speeds. Hearing is registered in about 3 milliseconds. Touch can register in the brain within 50 milliseconds. Your entire body, not just your brain, takes in the world, yet much of this is outside your awareness. Cognitive neuroscientists believe we’re conscious of only about 5 percent of our mental activity. The rest of your experience - physically, emotionally, sensorially – lives below what you are actually thinking. Your brain is processing stimuli constantly, like a sponge, absorbing millions of sensory signals.

When you walk into a room, you likely don’t appreciate all that your body is reacting to: the cast of light from a lamp, the colour on the walls, the temperature, the smell, the textures. You may think of yourself as a body moving independently through the world, but you are interconnected with and part of everything around you. You and your environment are inseparable. Your senses lay the foundation for how and why the arts and aesthetics offer the perfect path to amplify your health and well-being.

Salience is a word that occurs often in the book. You cannot possibly pay attention to all the stimuli coming into your body, or the many emotions and thoughts that emerge as a result. Your brain is an expert at filtering the inputs it thinks are important. Something that is salient is something that stands out. Things that create saliency induce the release of neurotransmitters, like dopamine and norepinephrine, activating your synapses and increasing synaptic plasticity. This regulates memory formation. The stronger the salient experience, the stronger the circuit formed and so the longer lasting the memory. Throughout the book, arts and aesthetic experiences emerge as major conduits for greater saliency. They are literally rewiring you brain.

I was interested to learn that the brain is also keen to remove synaptic connections. The term used is pruning, and just like in the garden the pruning of branches from a tree or bush will promote a stronger, healthier structure. Your brain does not like to waste energy. It is more energy efficient to use fewer cells, or synapses, to produce a behaviour.

Curiosity has also been baked into the human brain as an evolutionary need. It is part of our threat-detection systems. When we see something that speaks to us, we become interested and want to know more. The simple act of observing art becomes a vehicle for curiosity.

You should note at this point that ‘art’ has a broad definition in the book – not simply drawing and painting, but words and music, dance and movement, a broad range of sensory perceptions. An investigation into poetry found, by using MRI scanning machines, the part of our brain that lit up when listening to poetry was the same as that stimulated by music. Also activated were those areas connected to meaning-making and the interpretation of reality. Poetry can help us make sense of the world. It may sound obvious when put as simply as that, but understanding the science is fascinating.

The book shares some of the mechanisms, neurotransmitters, neural circuits, and networks that are activated in a person by arts and aesthetics. Arts can be used to ease physical and mental distress, learn more deeply, to galvanize community and help you to flourish.

The arts literally have the ability to change our biology, psychology and behaviour in undeniable and profound ways. Science is constantly moving along.

Taste, touch, small, vision and hearing are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Research in neuroaesthetics and other fields has sparked a debate about just how many senses we truly have. Some suggest the number could be as great as fifty-three, and include complex dynamic networks such as thermoception, or how we sense heat; equilibrioception, our perception of balance; and proprioception, our awareness of how our bodies move through space.

[Nelson Zagalo]

Uma desilusão, porque além de não apesentar nada de novo, o que apresenta é feito com uma ligeireza desconcertante, e num tom de otimismo triunfal a ponto de o livro parecer um manual de auto-ajuda, oferecendo terapêutica pela arte para tudo e todos. Citam-se alguns estudos e artigos, mas na generalidade usam-se muitas histórias pessoais que distanciam o livro da prática científica.

[Otis Chandler]

Heard the authors give a 1 hour talk - was very inspiring.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non-Fiction>Neurology, neuroarts
I went into this expecting a heart-on-your-sleeve liberal approach to learning and healing. What I found in the pages, however, is very well researched and fact-based chapters on varying topics that give useful and cutting-age insight to how humans benefit from arts, nature, and various forms of expression. Topics include mental health, physical health, concentration, learning, Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, ADHD, dance, writing, poetry, music (listening), music (performing), museums/theaters/art shows, early childhood education, and non-Western cultural practices.
I haven't made my way through the full notes and references, but I do expect to find multiple titles to add to my TBR, including Matthew Lieberman's Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect and checking out David Byrne's American Utopia (Broadway show). Reading this actually made me stop and look up the study referenced regarding Alzheimer's Disease. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in things like learning principles, perception, neurobiology/neuropsychology, and anyone interested in knowing more about how the arts are a positive influence on our bodies and minds.

Information tied in with other books I've read and enjoyed such as Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, and How Music Works.


"Your brain loves a good metaphor. Just as you can grasp a literal object with your hand, your brain can also grasp a concept."

"One person’s cacophony is another person’s symphony. And your perception is your reality."

"It turns out doodlers are more analytical, retain information better, and are better focused than their non-doodling colleagues."

"Drawing activates multiple regions in the brain that force our brain to process information in new ways while inspiring us to imagine and create new images in the brain."

"Physical health isn’t merely about an absence of disease. It’s about thriving with less emotional pain and suffering over the course of your life, even when conditions compromise your biological state."

"The brain doesn’t care about filling in bubbles on standardized tests or heated debates about curricular assessments. Our brain is structured to build new connections and to constantly evolve, and how we learn is not the same as a societal education system too often built around memorization of rote data and recall."

"You can’t learn if you don’t pay attention and you can’t remember if you don’t learn."

"Dopamine is vital to learning: It helps with goal-oriented motivation and in the laying down of long-term memory, which is crucial to retention. Humor is a learning juggernaut."

"According to wonder researchers, beauty is primarily what triggers it. The field of neuroaesthetics began with efforts to try to understand the neurobiology of beauty."

"The Lab of Misfits discovered that an audience member walked out of the Cirque performance a different person, physiologically, from the one who had entered. This peak aesthetic experience had changed them."

"A skill that we all possess and use every day, even if we don’t realize it. When you have to make up a recipe using spare ingredients in your pantry, when your child asks you to tell them a story at bedtime, when you create a clever DIY workaround for a home repair, you are engaging in creativity."

"The Māori term for creating art is Mahi Toi and is different from the Western concept of art. It is a continuation of ancestral practices connected to the cultural response with nature."

"In fact, scientists have discovered that stirring up microbes found in the soil can indeed improve brain function and boost mood."


"Everyone feels lonely sometimes, because this painful and universal emotion evolved to remind us human animals that social relationships and community keep us alive and help alleviate outside threats."

[La gata lectora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que tampoco necesitamos pruebas concretas para saber todo lo que el arte aporta a nuestras vidas pero qué guay es conocer algunos estudios que ha hecho la neurociencia sobre ello.

La creación artística y la exposición al arte son esenciales para una vida plena: es un factor protector de la salud mental, se ha demostrado eficaz en tratamientos psicológicos, es un potenciador del aprendizaje, ayuda a crear lazos sociales y da plenitud a la vida. Casi nada.

Además el arte abarca tantas disciplinas y tan diferentes que distintos tipos de arte estimulan distintas zonas cerebrales.

Pintura, música, literatura, fotografía, teatro, poesía, escultura, arquitectura, decoración, jardinería… la propia naturaleza… hay arte por todas partes es cuestión de poner atención.

Independientemente de esto tan interesante el libro sigue un poco el esquema americano de divulgación: estudios concretos, interpretaciones excesivamente entusiastas y ejemplos de casos un poco milagrosos jaja

A pesar de ello no podemos negar que el arte tiene un gran poder en el ser humano aunque no sea la panacea a los males del mundo. Hacerle un hueco al arte siempre mejorará tu vida.

(3/5)⭐️⭐️⭐️ interesante pero algo inflado

[Patricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

As an art educator I had high hopes for this book. I found it to be very disappointing. Much of this information is not new. Many of the research studies the authors spoke about were not cited nor expounded upon. When the authors devoted 4 pages to David Byrne’s anecdotes, positioning them as “research”, I just shook my head (no offense to David Byrne, he is a brilliant creative & musician, but anecdotes are subject to bias, over generalizations, insignificant sample size/pooling/limited data points & quite simply, are not scientific research). I expected so much more from this book.

[Emmy Simkiss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I thought it would be interesting in conjunction with my play therapy class and that it would probably offer some interesting science or specific activities I can eventually use in my clinical work. I’m honestly not really sure who this book is for. It read like just a series of anecdotal stories that art is good for you, but never fully explained the scientific reasons why, but still managed to get really technical even without those explanations. I got a couple useful tidbits out of it, but this felt more like a transcript of a really overly long TED talk than a book.

[Camelia Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book. An in-depth and up-to-date analysis on art making and appreciation combined with neuroscience? But I got a hodgepodge of essays on several different topics, none of which provides much new information. A little bit of each art form, music, visual arts, walking in nature, etc.., and how each is beneficial to your mental health and learning. The only thing I find interesting is using art to help ADHD students.

[Julia Sheridan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literal waste of my time. You (attempt) to build a compelling argument in the first part, which really isn't all that special, but then immediately disregard everything you've argued and just say people with ASD or ADHD should use AI glasses and fucking immersive video games???? Did you forget you wrote about embodied art forms for like...5 chapters? And what, was this book sponsored by Google??? Ew. Go back to school ❤️

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so revolutionary I fear I won’t have adequate words to describe how important I think it is. As a lifelong artist, performer, arts educator and arts advocate, I didn’t need to be convinced of the connection between brain function and art, but the breadth of the information in this book is astounding. The authors, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, bring an amazing array of experience and credentials to the table. Ross is Vice President for hardware product area at Google, and Magsamen is founder and director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They are partners in both doing the research and applying it.

Most of us who participate in the arts are aware of the power of the arts to relieve stress, spur creativity and create connections to others, past and present. But Ross and Magsamen take these ideas and go deeper, pointing to verifiable changes in the brain and neural system that affect our health and well-being. Did you know, for example, that certain heart scans reveal patterns reminiscent of quilt squares? Or that singing to a newborn baby releases hormones that calm both baby and mother? The authors make the case that arts of all types create measurable biological changes in the human body, and can be applied as therapies for mental, physical and social disorders and dysfunctions.

This book should be required reading for medical professionals and students, mental health professionals, business executives, and even politicians. This work raises the question as to why there is so much opposition to public funding for the arts, and completely obliterates the argument that the arts are just a “frill” or “luxury” in our lives, and makes the case for thorough integration of the arts in all facets of our existence.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my opportunity to receive an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. In that spirit, I will offer one correction to the text. On page 124, the first sentence reads, “…a mambo version of Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from the musical “West Side Story.” That sentence should read, …”Mambo” from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”

[Saskia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ The book is preaching the choir for me. It takes a very scientific lens which was informative, but also at times a tad dry.

[Gabriel West · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book about 10 days ago. It was super easy. I listened to it. IT was just something so easy to jump start my reading/audiobook habit again. I am viciously behind on my reading goal, but I am like half thru like 6 books, so I bet i'll catch up. Plus, I got a kindle and I think I am gonna buy a stand and a clicker for maximum laziness. No excuses for not reading.

I am getting weird paranoia about most books being marketed are total garbage, and just easy cash grabs for authors so I am really picky about what I am reading, but I still browse the libby app to get my dopamine fix because it feels like you are reading those books even when you arent.

Anyway, this book was fine. I could sum up her whole PhD on this topic by saying art is good. Listening to art, performing, and being around nature is good for your body. Not mind shattering. But maybe I should paint more so idk.

I will give her 3 stars instead of 2 because she seems nice and honest.

Anyway, I'll be back. I will get my reading goal. Just wait suckers.

[Kristi Ahlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I inhaled this one. Honestly, consumed it in one sitting. This made so much sense, while at the same time explaining things I didn't really ever consider. If you're looking to up your nonfiction reading this year, I highly recommend this one

[Becky Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confirming what parents and teachers already know, this book goes in to further details of which parts of the brain are stimulated by which form of art.
Informative, detailed.

[Debbie Wentworth Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When searching at the library for books on painting my house, I came upon this book. Both the cover and subject drew me in. (I know, you can't tell a book..., but in this case the cover was correct!) The cover was taken from an image by a practitioner of neuroaesthetics or the neuroarts. Neuroaesthetics is the study of the neurological changes arts make on individuals and society. The authors interview scientists and artists in this field, explore studies, and relate how the arts are being used to help people. Former criminals are using theater to reframe their understanding of themselves as they re-enter society. Women who have faced trauma are using dance to overcome their fear. Medical personnel find that music helps Alzheimer's patients and dance restores forgotten movements to Parkinson's patients. Kids are finding dance overcomes the temptations to do drugs and drawing allows them to deal with grief. Inner city gardening creates community.

Most of the book was fascinating and delightful. The writing was approachable. The authors combine anecdotes, statistics, and quotes to make it readable and keep the pace brisk. It slowed for me in the last couple of chapters as they discuss the evolution of art, or, as I call them, the cave man fables. The final chapter was a summary of the book with a look forward at what art may become. I think I like the older arts better than the immersive art of the future. All told, this was a thoughtful, interesting book. I'm glad I read it.

[Kamakana · Rating 3 out of 5]

250423: I have never needed any arguments to do, to create, to experience, Art. this text is for those who do need the ultimate validation of: science says, science proves, science is final truth. now science has its own ideologies of what this means. I have been fortunate and cursed to be some kind of artist for as long as I remember. this is like a modern elaboration of Art as Experience with less philosophy! with colour pictures! with all the suspense academic treatise can offer!

easy to read, but would you be wise to use its cases, data sets, questions and answers, as the basis for fear of missing out (on this intriguing set design etc)... frustrating book because I am artist and believe art, in all perceptions, is not combination of any or all of these necessary but not sufficient, aspects someone says here makes Art. Art is not composite. Art is not predictable. Art is difference in Kind, not Degree. Art is Quality and not Quantity. Art is Art and everything else is everything else..

[nickautomatic · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are going to write a book that claims to be about the latest science about art and the brain, then you should know that saying "the notes C and G ... resonate with the Earth's core frequency and are known to be soothing vibrations" (p.36) or "because color transmits at different frequencies and vibrations, practitioners are able to use a color's specific properties to shift the energy—and frequencies—within our body" (p.41) are the kinds of claim that *really* need a citation. You should also not be breathlessly and uncritically recycling press releases from architects like Thomas Heatherwick (p.51).

As I read on, I began to wonder if ChatGPT was involved in the writing of this book: tell-tale odd usage of the word "delving" prompted this, after which I started noticing that a lot of the paragraphs have that odd "filler" quality of breathy text that is gesturing at a topic without actually *saying* much about it. I could be wrong about that—perhaps the authors are just unfortunate in having a writing style that can be mistaken for ChatGPT—but this killed what little remaining interest I had in reading on.

Gave up at chapter 3 for these reasons.

[Bek (MoonyReadsByStarlight) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting and definitely made me feel encouraged to continue doing art. It brings in a lot of neat things happening with people using art for healing. But there was a disconnect for me. So much of the conclusion spoke to individualism, which seemed to be the antithesis of so much of the majority of how art was being used in the book. And even before then, there were bits about business that I didn't care for and not a lot on marginalized people and art (save for the section on Indigenous people which had some good information but still seemed to be framed in an off-putting way... especially given the individualism in a lot of its analysis). Don't get me wrong, this is a huge topic. I get that every facet of art won't be covered. But for me, hearing about a CEO discovering the existence of ~the innovative power of music ~ or whatever is just not interesting. I could say more but I'll stop there. However it does start an interesting conversation and has some cool info on art. I picked it up with no expectations and got a bit out of it, even if I found some of it's analysis to be lacking.

[Aaron Mikulsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this read! The research studies will blow you away!
Buy this book and read it over and over again if:
you care to learn about how the brain works and how you can enhance it,
you are interested in the arts (drama, dance, music, drawing, painting, gardening, working with your hards,
you care about learning, education and children,
you care to improve our healthcare systems and creating more healthy environments where well-being flourishes.

Take the free Aesthetic Mindset Index is based on a research instrument called the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment, or AReA. I found this simple and useful.

Here are a few teasers:
Our inner “e-motions” are our energies in motion. The world, and everything in it, is vibration in constant motion. Nikola Tesla, once said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” We are never static; we are measurable energy.

In 1929, poet, T.S. Elliot was analyzing poems and concluded that “genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

Neuroplasticity is the ability your brain has to rewire neural networks and change the way it functions. This doesn’t happen overnight, of course, but it does happen when you change your environment or make new habits, like introducing a new art practice into your daily routine. This helps to explain why a growing number of people are receiving a prescription for art, as both a healing measure and as a preventative measure. The arts can be a softened way of leaning into the hardened boundaries of trauma.

Our brain is structured to build new connections and to constantly evolve. We are driven to learn. We are a curious and questioning species by nature. Our desire to learn is innate. When the arts and aesthetics are integrated into education, work, and life, we strengthen our capacity to learn.

Everyone’s experience with pain is unique. We all feel it differently, because pain is more than a biological reaction; it’s a psychological one as well. It can even be cultural. Tolerance and acceptance of pain vary across ethnicity and culture.

Art and science together are potent medicine, capable of radically transforming our physical health. You feel moved by your favorite song; You’re literally changed, at the cellular level. All stimuli that we encounter change the structure and function of cells within our brains and bodies.

Countless studies show that art – whether it’s sound, colors, drawing, painting, dancing, or sculpting – can reduce stress, anxiety, pain, and trauma, while also prolonging life and improving your general well-being. By creating a more aesthetic environment and building a more art-centric day-to-day life, you can live a healthier, more fulfilling life. As Magsamen and Ross put it, “the arts and aesthetics change us and, as a result, they can transform our lives.” People who engage in the arts every few months have a 31% lower risk of dying early when compared with those who don’t. Even if you bring the arts into your life only once or twice a year, you lower mortality risk by 14%.

Bonnie Ware wrote the best-selling memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, in which she mentioned the two biggest regrets of those who are dying are the wish that they lived a life true to themselves versus what others expected, and that they’d had the courage to express their feelings more often.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”

Plato said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."

According to Golinkoff and Hirsch-Pasek, what kids need to learn are the 6 C’s: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence. Play and the arts, based on much research, build the 6 C’s. Their book, Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Children Really Learn and why they need to play more and memorize less, draws on their years of research around play and learning.

Attention is your ability to selectively focus and sustain focus. Neuroscape learned from their studies that your ability to move your attention flexibility, called switching, is quite limited. Sustained attention is a challenge for all of us. The book, The Distracted Mind, explains that the human brain isn’t actually capable of doing multiple things at once. “The human brain never multitasks,” according to Adam Gazzaley. Our brain is actually toggling quickly between tasks.

John Dewey, psychologist and educational reformer, once wrote, “Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters, musicians; it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality.” Our lives are a canvas, and we’re painting on it every single day.

Evolutionarily, we tend to privilege the negative emotions associated with survival. Much more of our brain real estate is devoted to the avoidance-oriented negative emotions than to the affiliative, approach-oriented emotions. Bad memories are made five times quicker, and last five times longer, than positive ones. Our minds go to what could go wrong versus what might go right in any situation, given that our brains naturally lean toward negative emotions.

The essence of humanity is for us to awaken to your true selves and to our connectedness. Fostering authentic flourishing in others is at the heart. The creatives of the world, now more than ever, have a tremendous opportunity to remind each other of the beauty of life and living and being.

James Baldwin wrote, “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”

“Creative expression, the arts, and aesthetics serve a core purpose: to birth new thoughts and ideas. To mirror back to one another what is important and what is needed. To weave together common threads of humanity. The arts empower us to reimagine, re-envision, and reconnect in order to create a better future together.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

The arts make visible what we are feeling, but may not have been able to name just yet, enabling us to see that we are not alone.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many deep dives into multiple areas of arts and their importance in all areas of health. I enjoy hearing about medical studies and their important impact on social constructs, but I feel like the book could have been organized differently.

The strengths of this book: the wonderful examples and the passion for arts in all areas of society. Everything from singing to knitting to creative writing.

Cons: heavy on technical studies and weak on personal examples that the reader can connect to. There are some, but not as in-depth as I would have liked.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Well this completely rewired my brain in a million and one ways. If the brain and art are two topics that either fascinate you or you are passionate about, then you need to read this. Its science and story backed explanations as to how the arts transforms us and how creativity and play helps the neuroplasticity in the brain.

[Green Megs &Ham · Rating 4 out of 5]

super inspiring and validating. art is so vital to so many careers. it's amazing to see how important it is for your brain and body as well.