Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: Contribution to Research in Neuroaesthetics

Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), are largely employed in cognitive neuroscience to investigate the brain–behavior relationship. During the last decade, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques have been increasingly employed in the field of neuroaesthetics research to shed light on the possible causal role of different brain regions contributing to aesthetic appreciation. This chapter provides a synthetic description of mechanisms of actions of TMS and different types of tES, and reviews recent NIBS studies that have shed light on the neural underpinning of aesthetic evaluation of (visual) artworks. The chapter also considers methodological limitations of the reviewed studies and the future potential for non-invasive brain stimulation to significantly contribute to the understanding of the neural bases of visual aesthetic experiences.