In a study, subjects were then asked to contemplate either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been pricked by a pin.
The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when contemplating the ugly paintings or the blank panel.
Electrodes measuring the brain’s electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.
While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.
The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
“Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic aspects should be taken into account too,” said the neurologist who published her findings in the paper Aesthetic Value of Paintings (And) Affects on Pain Thresholds.
“Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse.
“I think these results show that more research is needed into the how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering.”
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment