Our understanding of aesthetic appreciation has undergone a profound change during the past 20 years, as a result of the ability to study the human brain through neuroimaging. A number of findings cast into doubt important tenets of previous theories and models. Specifically, neuroscientific evidence suggests that aesthetic appreciation is not a distinct neurobiological process assessing certain objects, but a general system, centered on the mesolimbic reward circuit, for assessing the hedonic value of any sensory object. Furthermore, neuroscientific research also makes it clear that hedonic values are not determined solely by object properties, but subject to a range of object-extrinsic modulatory factors. This article reviews these findings and discusses how they demand a new experimental approach to aesthetic appreciation.

中文翻译：

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审美：神经影像学的视角

由于能够通过神经成像研究人脑，因此在过去20年中，我们对美学欣赏的理解发生了深刻的变化。许多发现使人们对以前的理论和模型的重要信条产生怀疑。具体而言，神经科学证据表明，审美欣赏不是评估某些物体的独特的神经生物学过程，而是以中脑边缘奖励回路为中心的通用系统，用于评估任何感官物体的享乐价值。此外，神经科学研究也清楚地发现享乐值不仅仅由物体的特性决定，而是受一系列物体外在调节因素的影响。本文回顾了这些发现，并讨论了它们如何要求一种新的实验方法来审美。