TY - JOUR
T1 - The Michelangelo Effect
T2 - Art Improves the Performance in a Virtual Reality Task Developed for Upper Limb Neurorehabilitation
AU - Iosa, Marco
AU - Aydin, Merve
AU - Candelise, Carolina
AU - Coda, Natascia
AU - Morone, Giovanni
AU - Antonucci, Gabriella
AU - Marinozzi, Franco
AU - Bini, Fabiano
AU - Paolucci, Stefano
AU - Tieri, Gaetano
N1 - Funding Information:
The publication of this study has been financed by Virtual Reality Lab of Unitelma Sapienza of Rome. The work of MI and GA was done in the framework of the Excellence Project PACE (Psychological Adaptation to ever Changing Environments), the work of GM and SP in the framework of Current Research of Santa Lucia Foundation, financed by Italian Ministry of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Iosa, Aydin, Candelise, Coda, Morone, Antonucci, Marinozzi, Bini, Paolucci and Tieri.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1/7
Y1 - 2021/1/7
N2 - The vision of an art masterpiece is associated with brain arousal by neural processes occurring quite spontaneously in the viewer. This aesthetic experience may even elicit a response in the motor areas of the observers. In the neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke, art observation has been used for reducing psychological disorders, and creative art therapy for enhancing physical functions and cognitive abilities. Here, we developed a virtual reality task which allows patients, by moving their hand on a virtual canvas, to have the illusion of painting some art masterpieces, such as The Creation of Adam of Michelangelo or The birth of Venus of Botticelli. Twenty healthy subjects (experiment 1) and four patients with stroke (experiment 2) performed this task and a control one in which they simply colored the virtual canvas. Results from User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire and the NASA Task Load Index highlighted an appropriate level of usability. Moreover, despite the motor task was the same for art and control stimuli, the art condition was performed by healthy subjects with shorter trajectories (p = 0.001) and with a lower perception of physical demand (p = 0.049). In experiment 2, only the patients treated with artistic stimuli showed a reduction in the erroneous movements performed orthogonally to the canvas (p < 0.05). This finding reminds the so-called Mozart effect that improves the performance of subjects when they listen to classic music. Thus, we called this improvement in the performance when interacting with an artistic stimulus as Michelangelo effect.
AB - The vision of an art masterpiece is associated with brain arousal by neural processes occurring quite spontaneously in the viewer. This aesthetic experience may even elicit a response in the motor areas of the observers. In the neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke, art observation has been used for reducing psychological disorders, and creative art therapy for enhancing physical functions and cognitive abilities. Here, we developed a virtual reality task which allows patients, by moving their hand on a virtual canvas, to have the illusion of painting some art masterpieces, such as The Creation of Adam of Michelangelo or The birth of Venus of Botticelli. Twenty healthy subjects (experiment 1) and four patients with stroke (experiment 2) performed this task and a control one in which they simply colored the virtual canvas. Results from User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire and the NASA Task Load Index highlighted an appropriate level of usability. Moreover, despite the motor task was the same for art and control stimuli, the art condition was performed by healthy subjects with shorter trajectories (p = 0.001) and with a lower perception of physical demand (p = 0.049). In experiment 2, only the patients treated with artistic stimuli showed a reduction in the erroneous movements performed orthogonally to the canvas (p < 0.05). This finding reminds the so-called Mozart effect that improves the performance of subjects when they listen to classic music. Thus, we called this improvement in the performance when interacting with an artistic stimulus as Michelangelo effect.
KW - aesthetics
KW - art
KW - cognition
KW - neuroscience
KW - psychophysics
KW - rehabilitation
KW - stroke
KW - virtual reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099728753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099728753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.611956
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.611956
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099728753
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
SN - 1664-1078
M1 - 611956
ER -