How art changes your brain: differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity
Bolwerk A, Mack-Andrick J, Lang F, Maihöfner C, Dörfler A (2014)
Publication Status: Published
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2014
Journal
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Book Volume: 9
Pages Range: e101035
Volume: 9
Issue: 7
Journal Issue: 7
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101035
Abstract
Visual art represents a powerful resource for mental and physical well-being. However, little is known about the underlying effects at a neural level. A critical question is whether visual art production and cognitive art evaluation may have different effects on the functional interplay of the brain's default mode network (DMN). We used fMRI to investigate the DMN of a non-clinical sample of 28 post-retirement adults (63.71 years ±3.52 SD) before (T0) and after (T1) weekly participation in two different 10-week-long art interventions. Participants were randomly assigned to groups stratified by gender and age. In the visual art production group 14 participants actively produced art in an art class. In the cognitive art evaluation group 14 participants cognitively evaluated artwork at a museum. The DMN of both groups was identified by using a seed voxel correlation analysis (SCA) in the posterior cingulated cortex (PCC/preCUN). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to relate fMRI data to psychological resilience which was measured with the brief German counterpart of the Resilience Scale (RS-11). We observed that the visual art production group showed greater spatial improvement in functional connectivity of PCC/preCUN to the frontal and parietal cortices from T0 to T1 than the cognitive art evaluation group. Moreover, the functional connectivity in the visual art production group was related to psychological resilience (i.e., stress resistance) at T1. Our findings are the first to demonstrate the neural effects of visual art production on psychological resilience in adulthood.
Authors with CRIS profile
Anne Bolwerk
Medizinische Fakultät
Frieder Lang
Lehrstuhl für Psychogerontologie
Christian Maihöfner
Lehrstuhl für Physiologie
Arnd Dörfler
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Bolwerk, A., Mack-Andrick, J., Lang, F., Maihöfner, C., & Dörfler, A. (2014). How art changes your brain: differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity. PLoS ONE, 9(7), e101035. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101035
MLA:
Bolwerk, Anne, et al. "How art changes your brain: differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity." PLoS ONE 9.7 (2014): e101035.
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