Aesthetic engagement with dynamic art unfolds through both perceptual evaluation and embodied exploration, with eye movements serving as a critical behavioral index. Although prior work has linked global motion properties to gaze patterns and aesthetic judgments, less is known about how these effects are shaped by spatial composition and localized motion cues. The present study addressed this question using eye tracking in a sample of participants (N = 55) who viewed generative animations systematically varied in global layout and spatial regions. Motion parameters, including magnitude variability and directional stability, were extracted from optical flow and modeled alongside fixation and saccade patterns. Results demonstrate that spatiotemporal motion dynamics, spatial layout, and regional positioning jointly shaped gaze allocation. These findings extend empirical aesthetics by showing that aesthetic experience is not solely determined by global stimulus properties but instead emerges from multilevel interactions between composition, motion, and attention, underscoring the embodied and dynamic nature of aesthetic viewing.
Natural color compositions are often assumed to enhance the attractiveness of artworks, yet unconventional color arrangements may also be aesthetically compelling. To examine this tension, we systematically rotated image-level color distributions in CIE Lab space across three planes (ab, La, and Lb). Six original images, including photographs, representational paintings, and abstract paintings, were transformed into 22 color orientations each, yielding 132 stimuli. Forty participants viewed these stimuli while cortical hemodynamic activity was recorded with functional near-infrared spectroscopy, followed by preference rankings. Behaviorally, participants showed a robust preference for original or near-original color organization, but additional preference peaks also emerged at some strongly transformed orientations, especially around -135 degrees. Cosine regression indicated that aesthetic preference was shaped by both naturalness-related and novelty-sensitive components. This general pattern was observed across stimulus categories, although novelty-sensitive preference was stronger in abstract images. Neurally, Within the cortical regions accessible to functional near-infrared spectroscopy, naturalness-related tuning was most evident in visual regions, whereas mixed or novelty-related tuning involved sensorimotor, frontal, and parietal regions. Photographs and representational paintings broadly followed the pooled neural pattern, whereas in abstract paintings, stronger behavioral novelty preference was not broadly mirrored as positive novelty-related oxygenated hemoglobin tuning, suggesting that abstract color novelty may involve more distributed, individual-specific, or nonmeasured processes. Together, these findings suggest that aesthetic responses to color orientation depend on a balance between naturalness and novelty, and that semantic constraint shapes how color novelty is behaviorally preferred and neurally realized.
Although previous research has explored the cognitive overlap between humor and novelty, little is known about how these processes dynamically interact during humor generation. To address this issue, we conducted a behavioral and an electroencephalography experiment to examine the temporal dynamics and neural correlates of humorous and novel processing. We employed a humor generation task based on Chinese xiehouyu (two-part allegorical sayings), in which a setup (first part) serves as a metaphorical cue and a key phrase (second part) provides the punchline-like meaning. Participants generated humorous setups for given key phrases in an open-ended task with multiple possible responses. In Experiment 1, task difficulty was manipulated by requiring either two or six setups per phrase. Expert ratings of humor and novelty served as dependent variables. Results showed that earlier setups received higher ratings in both humor and novelty, with novelty consistently exceeding humor. Humor and novelty ratings were strongly correlated, suggesting that humor builds upon novelty through selective processes that refine novel ideas into humorous ones. In Experiment 2, we examined electroencephalography alpha oscillations across early, middle, and late stages of humor generation. Setups were categorized into four groups (High/Low Humor & times; High/Low Novelty) based on expert ratings. In the early stage, both humorous and novel semantics elicited stronger alpha power in the right temporal region than in frontal and parietal regions. In the late stage, humorous processing induced stronger low-frequency alpha oscillations, whereas novel processing showed weaker ones. These findings indicate that humorous and novel semantics share common cognitive and neural processes in the early and middle stages, diverging in the late stage when selective mechanisms form humorous interpretations.
In popular culture and some innovation circles, psychedelic substances have attracted interest in relation to creativity. This interest occurs within the broader "psychedelic renaissance," characterized by the resurgence of clinical and neuroscientific research on psychedelics since the late 2000s. Despite the growing interest in the relationship between psychedelics and the creative process, there is a notable lack of research exploring the connection between psychedelics and the actual creative output. Building upon Oscar Janiger's historical legacy on LSD and creativity in the mid-20th century, this study explores the impact of LSD administration on the creativity, technical quality, aesthetic appeal, and abstraction levels of artworks created before and after LSD administration by established artists of that time. One hundred and forty paintings from 20 artists who participated in Dr. Janiger's study spanning the 1950s to the 1970s were evaluated by six raters using the consensual assessment technique. It was hypothesized that artworks produced after LSD administration would exhibit heightened creativity, aesthetic appeal, and abstraction along with diminished technicality. Findings support that LSD increases abstraction levels in artworks. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that LSD enhances creativity or aesthetic appeal, nor does it decrease technical quality. These findings suggest that although no reliable change was observed in creativity, aesthetics, or artistic technicality between pre- and post-LSD administration, LSD induced a shift in artistic style characterized by greater abstraction. Results are discussed considering potential mechanisms linking LSD and creativity, while highlighting the need for contemporary placebo-controlled studies investigating this link.
