Review article

NEUROATHESETICS AND GROWING INTEREST IN “POSITIVE AFFECT” IN PSYCHIATRY: NEW EVIDENCE AND PROSPECTS FOR THE THEORY OF INFORMATIONAL NEEDS

Saša Branković orcid.org/0000-0003-0475-5358 ; Clinic for Psychiatry, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions to experience pleasure in interpersonal communication and dealing with art,
science, and philosophy – this is what the theory of informational needs (TIN) suggested eleven years ago is about. At the same time,
at the beginning of this century, several lines of research have emerged. Neuroaesthetics has been established; the discovery of the
mirror neuron system and theories about its function have appeared; a growing interest in positive affect and pleasure has developed
in psychiatry and medicine. The purpose of the present paper is to reconsider the TIN (Branković 2001) in the context of the advance
in neuroscience during the last decade and to show how much conceptual clarity is gained when the recent empirical and theoretical
findings are viewed from the standpoint of the TIN. A computational model of the aesthetic response based on the TIN’s two-factor
model of hedonic value of stimuli is delineated.

Keywords

neuroaesthetics – mirror neuron system – positive affect – aesthetic experience – peak experience – motivation – emotion – attachment – computational model – theory of informational needs

Hrčak ID:

161162

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/161162

Publication date:

10.6.2013.

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