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And now we know that art also heals. Listening to
Science and Art Come Together in music, for example, produces changes in the brain and
body that can reduce stress and promote psychological
well-being, which in turn has a beneficial impact on
the National Institutes of Health’s physical health. Making music or drawing or creating
art in other ways also has health benefits. Performing
ABCD Study with or for other people can connect us directly,
but even creating or enjoying art on our own can
be healing. It may be that some of the therapeutic
benefits of appreciating and making art come from
how it enhances our feeling of human connection and
Art is one of the most basic, and oldest, human letters and words. But belonging even in solitude.
activities. Forty thousand years ago, humans living we also communicate
in what is now southern Germany carved human and with our bodies, and Art and Science
imaginative human-animal figurines from mammoths’ with pictures and
ivory. They painstakingly fashioned flutes from the bones objects and songs. In my work life, I’m a scientist who studies the brain. But
of eagles, so we know they played and enjoyed music. Thus, we are able to in my spare time, I’m a painter. I like to create imaginary
Meanwhile, humans in France painted realistic horses, express our inner landscapes, such as “Childhood Landscape” (left) and “City Landscape” by Nora Volkow
bison, and lions on the walls of caves—paintings that experience. Art creates “City Landscape” (right).
the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso thought were a special kind of social Science and art are similar in many ways. Both an New York City at night. I enjoyed looking at the windows
unsurpassed by any paintings made since then. interaction between artist and a scientist must be able to think creatively, to and seeing people interacting with one another in words I
the person who
Art defines us as a species—no other animal makes find hidden associations, and to imagine new solutions couldn’t hear. Yet we were connected, because we were all
pictures or sculptures or music as we know it, even our creates an artwork to problems. Then, they both have to figure out the most experiencing the same moment in time.
closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos.* and the person who elegant way to experiment and test their solutions. An
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Our ability to imagine and make symbols is unique, and receives it. “Childhood Landscape” artwork can feel like an experiment—it might attempt to Butterflies of the Soul
it starts when we’re very young children. When a toddler The feeling of awe by Nora Volkow uncover a hidden perspective, create a new association, or
creatively transforms a spoon into an airplane or a box into and mystical connection investigate a complex feeling. In other ways, however, art and science are very different
a house, these are early symbols; they’ll use many others that art can produce is When I paint, I allow unseen shapes to guide the contours from each other. Science is a collective effort that proceeds
throughout their life to communicate, understand, and a humanizing force. When we listen to a piece of music, of the colors and forms in ways that feel right to me cautiously in investigating problems, while art can be
manage their physical and social world. Imagination is play admire a painting, or read a novel, we’re interacting with emotionally. Above are two paintings that show how I very personal and playful. In science, the aim is to explore
with a purpose; it plays a crucial behind-the-scenes role in the mind of the person who created it, via the sensations uncover feelings and perceptions by allowing these shapes and understand reality, while art can create a completely
our ability to think. and the emotions in our body that the work elicits. to emerge. The painting at the left is my rendering of a new reality. The artist has the freedom to explore and
understand the world in a new way. Those new ways of
Art is not only something we do; it is something we need. Through experiencing art, we have special access to the huge yellow wall in the house I grew up in. As a child, I understanding can then inspire the scientist to observe the
It’s the most basic form of culture—the complex systems experiences of other human beings, even ones whose enjoyed looking at that wall. The paint was peeling and the world differently, too.
of symbols we share with other people. Culture allows us lives may be very different from ours or who lived in other color in some places had been changed by the rain; I could
to coordinate our activities with others and cooperate with times in history. In this way, it activates our imagination and see a variety of creatures lurking in those flaws. Some people are both scientists and artists, including in
them. Humans are social creatures; we’re totally dependent enables us to empathize while expanding our experience. The painting at the right is inspired by the landscapes of my own field of neuroscience, the study of the brain and
on interaction with others. We communicate our feelings Society, culture, and civility—cooperation with our fellow nervous system. Almost 150 years ago, a pathologist in
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and intentions to them with the symbols of language— humans—would be unthinkable without art. Spain named Santiago Ramon y Cajal observed unique
cells in tissues from animal brains under a microscope. He
was the first to describe the tree-like shape of nerve cells
(or neurons) and the amazingly complex ways they connect
Nora D. Volkow, M.D. with each other. To share his discoveries, he made exquisite
Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse ink drawings of neurons, allowing other people to see for
National Institutes of Health the first time the sublimity of the brain at the cellular level.
Today, his drawings are also recognized as works of art.
Ramon y Cajal didn’t yet know exactly how neurons
worked or communicated with each other. But what he
* Bowerbirds in Australia and New Guinea construct house installations to attract a mate. Some of these are quite beautiful and are considered by
some people to be artistic creations, although they are constrained by their unique purpose. This is different from the “open” purpose of human art. saw through his microscope enabled him to sense what
1 https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-closely-related-are-humans-to-apes and https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/06/ neuroscientists now take for granted: that these amazingly
bonobos-join-chimps-closest-human-relatives#:~:text=Ever%20since%20researchers%20sequenced%20the,them%20our%20closest%20 complex structures are the very basis of everyone’s
living%20relatives
2 https://www.famousscientists.org/santiago-ramon-y-cajal/ Continued on page 37