Italian scientists have found that viewing landscapes pleasing to the eye slightly slows a person's reaction and reduces the activity of brain signals associated with preparing for movement. The work was published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
The experiments involved two groups of young right-handed people: 30 people (17 women, average age about 25 years) and 20 people (10 women, average age 25 years). Participants were shown 180 black-and-white photographs of nature - mountains and sea coasts. The images were standardized for brightness, contrast and other parameters so that differences would not affect the results.
In the first experiment, participants looked at the photographs, and when the image disappeared they had to press the spacebar as quickly as possible. After that they rated how much they liked the landscape on a scale from 1 to 9. It turned out that after attractive pictures the average reaction time was 297 milliseconds, and after unattractive ones - 288 milliseconds. The difference of 9 milliseconds (about 3.1%) is statistically significant, although small.
In the second experiment, the scientists recorded the brain's electrical activity using electroencephalography (EEG) - a method in which a cap with sensors that pick up brain signals with millisecond accuracy is placed on the head. Participants looked at landscapes, and then a colored circle appeared on the screen: green meant that the spacebar had to be pressed as quickly as possible, red meant that pressing was not allowed. The display time of the photograph was fixed - 5 seconds.
The behavioral results were confirmed: after pleasant images participants reacted on average in 504 milliseconds, after unpleasant ones - in 497 milliseconds (a difference of 7 milliseconds, about 1.4%). In analyzing the EEG, the researchers focused on the "readiness potential" - a gradual increase in electrical activity in the frontal and central regions of the brain, which usually begins one to two seconds before a movement. The stronger this signal, the faster a person acts. It turned out that when viewing attractive landscapes this potential was noticeably weaker than when viewing unattractive ones. In addition, after pleasant photographs, activity associated with processing the green signal and with the pressing itself decreased.
The authors also analyzed brain rhythms. Alpha waves (8-12 hertz) usually weaken when the visual areas are actively processing information, and beta waves (approximately 20-33 hertz) strengthen when the brain restrains movement. Before the traffic-light signal appeared, when viewing pleasant landscapes alpha activity fell more strongly, and beta activity rose more than with unpleasant ones. This indicates increased visual attention and at the same time inhibition of motor preparation.
One of the authors, Paolo Barbieri, noted that the effect may be linked to the "stopping for cognition" hypothesis: the feeling of beauty signals to the brain that action should be temporarily paused in order to direct resources toward studying the surroundings. However, he emphasizes that the reaction delays were very small - only 7-9 milliseconds - and the motor system does not switch off completely.
The study has limitations. In the laboratory, participants viewed standardized black-and-white photographs on a screen, which differs from the real perception of art or nature. The sample was small (30 and 20 people), and preferences were determined by subjective ratings, so the results show a correlation rather than a causal relationship. In addition, the scientists did not check whether participants remembered more information about the pleasant images. Future work should confirm how widely these patterns apply.