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How your brain decides what is beautiful

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About this talk

Cognitive neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee’s research in neuroaesthetics is unraveling the intricate concept of human beauty. In his 2016 TEDMED Talk, Anjan draws on tools of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and art to explain what makes someone aesthetically beautiful and why we’re drawn to beautiful people.

About Anjan Chatterjee

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Anjan Chatterjee is a cognitive neuroscientist and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading expert in neuroaesthetics, the fascinating field that studies the science behind why we find certain things beautiful. His research explores a tantalizing question: how does our brain respond to beauty, and why might we have evolved to desire it? In his book, The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art, he explains how our appreciation for beautiful faces and places may have helped our species succeed over time. In addition to his work on beauty, he has authored numerous publications on topics like attention, spatial awareness, and neuroethics, the study of the ethical issues raised by neuroscience. He is the former president of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Society, a testament to his influence in the field. Anjan’s work bridges the gap between art and science, helping us understand why certain things appeal to us in such a powerful and profound way.

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