Neurobiologists have revealed the phenomenon of the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands, where the canvas is housed, along with scientists, has been able to explain why this masterpiece of painting captures attention. This is reported by Mauritshuis.
For the first time, researchers have used electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging to determine what happens in the brain when it admires a work of art. It turns out that when looking at a painting, a neurological phenomenon occurs, known as the "sustained attention loop."
A person develops a desire to closely examine the canvas, studying the girl's eyes, her lips, and the shiny earring. When contemplating the painting, the precuneus is activated the most — this is a region of the parietal lobe on the inner surface of the brain's hemispheres, responsible for self-awareness, memory, and visual-spatial perception.
The study involved ten participants. After familiarizing themselves with the original painting, they were asked to look at a reproduction. The brain activity in this case was ten times weaker than when studying the original. Now neurobiologists want to understand how Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," which captivates viewers with her mysterious smile, affects the brain.
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