Have you ever looked at the side of a cliff and seen a face in the rock, like the Old Man on the Mountain famously minted on the New Hampshire quarter

Why our "wandering brains" are wired to love art and nature

submited by
Style Pass
2021-06-16 09:30:27

Have you ever looked at the side of a cliff and seen a face in the rock, like the Old Man on the Mountain famously minted on the New Hampshire quarter? Or perhaps you have seen clouds in the shape of dragons, or the face of Jesus on a piece of burnt toast? If so, you have experienced what psychologists call "pareidolia" — finding meaningful images in visual patterns.

And while the experience of pareidolia is universal, few know that pareidolia is also an indication of creativity and a fundamental feature of aesthetic appreciation. Recent scientific research into the neuroscience of "spontaneous thought" suggests that the source of pareidolia may be one of the reasons we love art and nature so much.

Cognitive fluctuations are unpredictable changes in neural activity in the brain.  Their causes are presently unknown. Neuroscientists have been aware of these fluctuations since the 1930s, but typically averaged them out as "background noise" from other brain activity correlated to conscious thought.

Recently, scientists have come to believe that so-called background noise in the brain may be more crucial to consciousness than previously thought. Recent research found that these fluctuations make up 95% of brain activity; conscious thoughts account for merely 5%. Cognitive fluctuations are like the dark matter or "junk" DNA of the brain, in that they make up the most significant part of what's happening but remain mysterious.  

Leave a Comment
Related Posts