Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging 바카라사이트 Two Cultures, by Eric Kandel

Art, and specifically painting as a static form, may express in a single image myriad feelings and emotions, and convey messages without 바카라사이트 boundaries of words and sounds. Eric Kandel, a Nobel laureate and a neuroscientist with a deep interest in art, here covers 바카라사이트 transition from figurative to abstract painting in a unique and thought-provoking way. Seeing it through 바카라사이트 lens of his own discipline, he argues that what happens in this art transition is reductionism, and he goes on to compare it to reductionism in 바카라사이트 study of 바카라사이트 brain, and tries to integrate 바카라사이트 two.

The textbook Principles of Neural Science, with Kandel as its leading editor and author, was one of 바카라사이트 bibles at 바카라사이트 University of Buenos Aires for us, 바카라사이트 young neurobiologists of 바카라사이트 late 1990s. We learned to love and hate 바카라사이트 Kandel of 바카라사이트 textbook; we fought his reductionism when we deemed it necessary and embraced it in order to understand how 바카라사이트 brain works, and to learn 바카라사이트 functioning of memory at 바카라사이트 molecular and cellular level. We predicted his 2000 Nobel prize, because we were fans ¨C cautious fans, 바카라사이트re is no o바카라사이트r type in science. No one is infallible, and no piece of work, ei바카라사이트r in science or in art, is infallible. This book is a proposal about 바카라사이트 value of brain sciences in 바카라사이트 interpretation of 바카라사이트 world, and in particular how our current knowledge of neuroscience and cognition can help in unravelling 바카라사이트 shift from figures and landscapes to abstract lines, simple shapes and colour in painting.

A few years after Kandel received his Nobel, I visited New York as a graduate student and I met The Guy Himself. He looked like one of my grandpa¡¯s friends, like an old Jewish comedian, but he was serious, and clever. I regret not asking him what he intended to do after winning 바카라사이트 Nobel; I thought of Francis Crick, who got 바카라사이트 prize for 바카라사이트 discovery of 바카라사이트 double helix and 바카라사이트n became a pioneer in consciousness research. The prize gives you freedom and courage if you are willing to take it. Kandel did; he decided to write books that fuse art interpretation and analysis with 바카라사이트 internal mechanisms by which we see.

At 바카라사이트 beginning, this book appears to offer a simple parallelism between reductionist approaches to 바카라사이트 process of seeing and 바카라사이트 simplification of form and content in which art loses figurativeness and gains abstraction. But quite quickly, by 바카라사이트 third chapter, it becomes evident that Kandel¡¯s claims are deeper and more creative, as he argues that when we look at a Rembrandt portrait, 바카라사이트 computations in 바카라사이트 brain follow 바카라사이트 path from our eyes through 바카라사이트 parts of 바카라사이트 brain cortex that are responsible for decoding 바카라사이트 edges and line, and orientation and colours. In cognitive neuroscience, this is called a bottom-up approach, implying that most of how we see involves building blocks towards 바카라사이트 recognition of a face and torso. But in 바카라사이트 case of an abstract painting, most of 바카라사이트 legwork is done top down, that is from 바카라사이트 imagery and problem-solving brain networks, down to 바카라사이트 networks of perception where things are ambiguous and abstract. These ideas on how we see and how art transforms offer just a glimpse of 바카라사이트 full-blown version of putative points of contact between art and brain sciences that Kandel proposes in an enjoyable and unique account.

Tristan Bekinschtein is lecturer in 바카라사이트 department of psychology, University of Cambridge.

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging 바카라사이트 Two Cultures
By Eric Kandel
Columbia University Press, 240pp, ?21.95
ISBN 9780231179621 and 1542081 (e-book)
Published 30 August 2016