DATA ANALYSIS IN THE ARTS
successful clinical outcomes. Hard statistical evidence for this, however, is only gradually accumulating and tends to come from very small projects since there is an understandable reluctance to divert overstretched health funding from treatment into research which may seem to the public diffuse and tangential. Artist Luke Palmer, for instance, works in a
Brain areas in which activity is significantly greater (P 0.001) for stimuli rated as beautiful rather than not beautiful by women (left) and men (centre) and both (right) during different time intervals. (From Cela-Conde et al.[3]
)
decades ago. Even detailed exploration of which stimulus to which part of the brain triggers which appreciative artistic response is older than I am, but real progress on this front only starts fairly recently with experiments made possible by the falling cost of computer mediated imaging techniques. Data analyses from magnetoencephalographic
experiments published three years ago, Cela- Conde and others[3]
showed that there are
identifiable patterns of brain activity in response to perceived beauty, with both differences (at the 99.9 per cent significance level) and similarities by gender. Female brains tend to show rapid responses in the leſt hemisphere followed by further areas of activity in the right, then reappearance aſter a brief lull by further, but smaller, leſt brain response in the initial area. Male brains, on the other hand, tend to be slower in responding and then show activity exclusively in the right hemisphere until, aſter a lull at the same time as its female counterpart, they too switch side to show a smaller response area on the leſt side. Both female and male also, however, have areas which show similar correlate response to perceptions of beauty. Hop forward to last year, and another study[4]
using neuroimaging illustrates aspects of financial influence on assessment of aesthetic value. Two groups of subjects, one with and the other without formal art training, were asked to subjectively rate projected copies of paintings by preference. Each respondent was paid to participate in the study, the money being provided by company sponsorship, and the paintings as viewed on screen were preceded by a reminder of this fact accompanied by the company logo. Each painting was then displayed with an accompanying logo – sometimes that of the sponsor, sometimes not. Parametric regression analysis of the results showed that there was a significant tendency for the group without formal art training to value those images associated with the sponsoring company’s logo
24 BEYOND THE NUMBERS A STATISTICS SPECIAL
more highly than those with an unrelated one. Te formally-trained subjects, on the other hand, showed no such tendency. Tat formal training insulates judgement
from influence was a pre-existing hypothesis which the researchers were further testing. Tey were also, however, looking for linkages of the two separate judgement aspects (preference and influence) with neural activity. Here, the data showed that blood oxygen level dependent signals from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) reflected preference levels in both groups while activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was differentially expressed. Analysis of the results suggests that the DLPFC is acting as a moderator which interdicts external bias in the VMPFC’s operation. Stepping back a little
from the neurological level and returning to the phenomenological, another study[5]
picks up
the thread of Appleton’s biological approach to the aesthetics of environment but adds a statistical layer of rigor. Order of preference of college students for different auditory and visual features in a single streetscape were recorded at different times of year, and the resulting data set analysed. Naturally occurring components consistently tended to rank highest in both visual and auditory preference lists throughout spring, summer and autumn, but fell back to be dominated by artificial (in the visual lists) and social (auditory) in the winter. Investigations of that kind are valuable in
themselves to environmental designers such as architects and town planners. Tey can also inform studies of the influence that designed environments in general and installed art in particular can have on somatic and psychological resilience. Tere is widespread conviction, with strong anecdotal support, that art on the walls of hospitals improves the rate and quality of
children’s hospital with cystic fibrosis patients who, by the nature of their treatment, are isolated learners. He conducts outcomes research whose results he feeds to medical and management staff, pharmaceutical companies and others, but his co-synchronous samples are usually three or four in size so statistically significant results take time to assemble. Compounding this is the fact that interest in researching the issue is likely to be prior to investment and disappear once money has been committed. Larger scale studies of the types and styles of work which generally induce feelings of contentment or wellbeing in viewers tend to show wide variations, which isn’t helpful. Environmental preference analyses from other sources, such as the Korean streetscape example, therefore provide valuable triangulation. Direct evidence of value in mental and
“Statistical data analysis is often described as being as much an art as a science”
psychological health is easier to come by. Examination of stress levels amongst office workers in differing environments yields data whose analysis recalls gender differences in neural response to beauty: male subjects tended towards significantly reduced states of anger and stress in offices decorated with art posters (of whatever kind), while female subjects do not. Similar results, though with reduced magnitude, are found in studies of patients in psychiatric care.
From another perspective, the arts industries
relate to the health sector through their close and frequent habitual exposure to hazardous materials and conditions. It seems intuitively reasonable to anticipate that they would be at increased risk of respiratory and other upper body conditions. Hard data is again thin on the ground but at least one recent Croatian paper[6] suggests that the obvious may be fallacious. No statistically significant difference emerged between arts or cultural heritage restorers and control subjects in any respect except (at the 95 per cent level) nasal hyper-responsiveness. Statistical data analysis is oſten described as
being as much an art as a science. It can also be described as the essential interface between the arts and the sciences, bridging the perceived gulf between them.
References and Sources
For a full list of references and sources cited in this article, visit
www.scientific-computing.com/features/referencesapr12.php
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
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