Moving Toward Emotions in the Aesthetic Experience.

In this essay, we comment on our original review published in 2009 in Current Opinion in Neurobiology where, as we build a general theoretical framework that encompasses major empirical work in the field of neuroesthetics since then, we also emphasize the role of the motor system and emotions in building an aesthetic experience. Here we extend our previous view with further empirical evidence, including from clinical and developmental psychology, thus supporting the idea that our perception is not a mere "visual" copy of what is before our eyes, but the result of a complex construction, whose outcome depends on the contribution of our body and its motor potential, our senses and emotions, imagination and memories. While we offer some food for thought for future research, we conclude by introducing a fairly recent line of study that explores the role of embodiment in architecture.