Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform UsYour Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen is a New York Times bestseller that explores the scientific and proven benefits of engaging with art for health and well-being, arguing it’s essential, not just entertainment. The book uses research in neuroaesthetics to show how activities like painting, music, and dance can lower stress, boost creativity, improve cognitive function, and combat loneliness, featuring insights from artists and scientists. It presents art as a powerful tool for transforming medicine, building communities, and improving lives, with studies showing just 45 minutes of art can reduce cortisol and one art experience a month may extend life.
- Stress reduction: Engaging in art for as little as 45 minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol.
- Cognitive enhancement: Playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning.
- Longevity: One art experience per month may extend your life by ten years.
- Holistic well-being: Art is presented as a way to improve mental and physical health, combat loneliness, and build healthier communities.
- Broad definition of art:The book covers a wide range of activities, including painting, dancing, expressive writing, architecture, music, and virtual reality.
- Neuroaesthetics:It’s an authoritative guide to the field of neuroaesthetics, explaining the science behind how art affects the brain.
Book Description by Penguin Random House, the publisher:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A life-altering, science-backed exploration of the healing power of art, which has now been proven to help lower stress, supercharge learning and creativity, extend your lifespan, and combat loneliness.
“This book blew my mind!”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit
A BLOOMBERG BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Finalist for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award and the Porchlight Business Book Award
What is art? Many of us think of the arts as entertainment—a luxury of some kind. In Your Brain on Art, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show how activities from painting and dancing to expressive writing, architecture, and more are essential to our lives.
We’re on the verge of a cultural shift in which the arts can deliver potent, accessible, and proven solutions for the well-being of everyone. Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. They expand our understanding of how playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning; the vibrations of a tuning fork create sound waves to counteract stress; virtual reality can provide cutting-edge therapeutic benefit; and interactive exhibits dissolve the boundaries between art and viewers, engaging all of our senses and strengthening memory. Doctors have even been prescribing museum visits to address loneliness, dementia, and many other physical and mental health concerns.
Your Brain on Art is a portal into this new understanding about how the arts and aesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities, and mend an aching planet.
Featuring conversations with artists such as David Byrne, Renée Fleming, and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson, Your Brain on Art is an authoritative guide to neuroaesthetics. The book weaves a tapestry of breakthrough research, insights from multidisciplinary pioneers, and compelling stories from people who are using the arts to enhance their lives.
