Original art stimulates the brain more than copies

Published 8 October 2024
- By Editorial Staff
Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague.

There is a huge difference between looking at original artwork and posters, according to researchers in the Netherlands. The brain is stimulated up to ten times more when looking at “real” art.

The study, commissioned by the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, used eye-tracking technology and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to record the brain activity of volunteers looking at real works of art versus copies. For example, participants were asked to look at Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is on display at the museum.

The study was carried out in two parts. The volunteers, aged between 21 and 65, were hooked up to a brain scanner with an electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking equipment, and then asked to look at five paintings in the museum, as well as posters of them in the museum shop. In a second part, the participants were also asked to look at images of original works and images of copies through special glasses in an MRI scanner at the University of Amsterdam.

Among the 20 volunteers, it was found that the brain was stimulated ten times more when looking at originals than at copies.

– A factor of 10 is an enormous difference, and this is what happens when you look at a reproduction compared to a real work, Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis, told The Guardian. “You become [mentally] richer when you see things, whether you are conscious of it or not, because you make connections in your brain”.

Even when participants saw photographs of original works, they had more positive reactions.

The real artworks elicited a strong positive response in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in consciousness, self-reflection and personal memory, the researchers say.

– We all feel the difference – but is it measurable, is it real? Gosselink says she had asked her colleagues a year ago. “Now, today we can really say that it is true”.

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