3 Takeaways - This Is Your Brain on Beauty — And It's Powerful (#252)

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

What if music, color, scent, and art could actually change your brain? Science now shows they do.Join Susan Magsamen, Executive Director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins, as she explores how art and beauty impact our brains and well-being. From the transformative power of music to the subtle magic of sensory environments, she reveals how simple aesthetic moments can boost your health and joy.

As my guest today says, many of us tend to think of the arts as either entertainment or as an escape, a luxury of some kind. But it turns out that the arts are so much more. We now have scientific proof that the arts, in its countless forms, heals our bodies and enhances our well-being. The arts can be used to fundamentally change and enhance people's day-to-day life. What is this new science of art and aesthetics

and how does it amplify our wellbeing? Hi everyone, I'm Lynn Toman and this is Three Takeaways. On Three Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers, and scientists. Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better. Today, I'm excited to be with Susan Magsaman, Executive Director of the International Arts and Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

She's a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is also the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, Your Brain on Art, How the Arts transform us. I'm looking forward to learning how the arts and an aesthetic mindset transforms us and amplifies our health and wellbeing. Welcome, Susan, and thanks so much for joining Three Takeaways today. Thank you so much for having me, Lynn.

It is my pleasure. I loved your book. Susan, can you please read aloud from the beginning of your book. Susan, can you please read aloud from the beginning of your book? I'd be happy to. You know the transformative power of art. You've gotten lost in music, in a painting, in a movie or a play, and you felt something shift within you. You've read a book so compelling that you press it into the hands of a friend. You heard a song so moving, you listen to it over and over, memorizing every word. The arts bring joy, inspiration, well-being.

Such a wonderful quote. What happens when scientists scan the brains of healthy or well people as they experience art or music, what do they see? I will say with music, if you're a beholder of music, we see tremendous brain activity in all different lobes of the brain. And we also see a synchronicity between listeners that are listening together. So one of the things about music in particular is that we see that there is this ability to be able to be in union with each other. And we see that at concerts where people are kind of moving together, but there's an amazing opportunity for social cohesion when you're thinking about being together and experiencing

music with each other. And we also see this idea around awe and possibility emerge when you're listening to something that is activating neurotransmitters that are hopeful. Not all music, not all arts make us feel good. And so this is why I say context matters. If you're in a prison, and music is being played nonstop to keep you awake or to agitate you, that dissonance is also going to be something that is affecting your neuro physiology. And so I think we have to really think about the power of these different kinds of arts, and to what purpose and to what impact. It's so interesting to me, the idea that people,

that their bodies, that their heartbeats can synchronize or mirror each other's if they're feeling close to somebody or close to music. That to me is fascinating. The environments around us are so critical. Can you explain the concepts of an enriched and an impoverished environment? In the 60s, there was a researcher named Marion Diamond who did the first experiments around enriched environments.

What she did was create three conditions. The first was an enriched environment that had novelty and surprise and things change. They were places for curiosity. The middle was kind of a status quo environment. The third was an impoverished environment where there was very little to rest on or to gain attention. And these three environments were created for rats. So she put the rats in these different conditions for just two weeks. And after that period of time, the rats were sacrificed. And what she saw was that in the enriched environments, the brains of the rats grew, they actually got larger, which is extraordinary.

The synapses were stronger, but the mass, the physical mass of the brain got bigger. In the status quo environments, nothing really changed in the rats. But sadly, in the impoverished environments, the brains got smaller and there were less connections. And so this work in those days was shared and initially it was shared with other scientists

with disbelief, like no one believed that the brain could change. This was the first experiment on neuroplasticity. People thought that, you know, you're kind of born with a certain amount of connections and they maybe grow when you're young, but then they stop. And what we saw was that environments change the brain. They change it in profound ways.

And now those experiments are being done noninvasively and in human subjects. And we're seeing, in fact, that that's true, that enriched environments matter. And so how those environments are created and how you have agency over your environments are really important, whether it's light or smell or temperature, novelty, as I mentioned, really thinking about what are those spaces for you? What do you need those spaces to do? I think sound is one that's also incredibly important. And how does that sound really change your neurophysiology? And how can you moderate that and begin to create those environments that really support what

you need, regardless of where you are? What is the ultimate enriched environment? If there is such a thing, or can you give some examples, please? I think the ultimate enriched environment is unique to each of us. That's why it's really important to know your physiology and to be able to feel that somatic sensory systems in us. And you explained what an aesthetic mindset is. People often say, you know, what do I need to do to have this use of the arts?

Should I paint? Should I paint? Should I draw? Should I dance? And what we really thought a lot about was what are the ingredients that you need in order to move in the world thinking about this idea of aesthetics and the arts? So the first one is curiosity. And that's really having an open mind, you know, looking around the corner, really lifting your head up from your phone, being curious about the world. The second is playful exploration. And that is around not having to have an answer, not having to have a conclusion, not having to have finished making something, but just to explore.

And it turns out that that's very hard for us in a world that looks for production and looks for outcomes. And then the third is this idea around sensory exploration. So feeling, looking, smelling, touching, just being more engaged in those sensory experiences that felt sense. And the last is being intentional about making and beholding. So this idea about being a maker and a beholder in an intentional way. So it's those four things that make up the aesthetic mindset. What you're talking about is essentially a way of being. Can you give examples throughout

the day of how someone with an aesthetic mindset, what they might see or do starting from the morning to the evening. An aesthetic mindset with those kind of ingredients, with those sensibilities, is really an adventure. You know, it's really a journey. And it doesn't mean that you're always gonna be happy because journeys have darkness and they have worry and they have curiosity and they have curiosity and they have

joy and they have all of the emotions. There's some researchers now that say we have over 30,000 different feelings and emotions. So it's going to be different for each of us, but waking up to the sunlight, taking a shower where you're humming in the shower and you're activating your vagus nerves, but you're also activating the over 4 million touch receptors on your skin. So you're literally waking up your skin, making tea or coffee and slowly waking up to the smell of breakfast, being able to think about what it is you're wearing that day and why you're choosing

to wear that going throughout the day, thinking about what the spaces are around you. You know, if you're working in a space, do you need light? Do you need natural light? Are you taking a walk and just really allowing your nervous system to regulate based on our natural world. And you know, our natural world is the most aesthetic place. You may decide that you want to dance, you know, at the end of the day, that you want to put on some music and dance with or without somebody. And then even thinking about as you create your rituals for bedtime, what are those sensorial things that are helpful for you?

How do you dim your lights? Do you listen to music? These are all moments that are woven throughout our days. And I think if you take care of the moments, the years take care of themselves. That's lovely. How do you think about an aesthetic mindset compared to, for example, exercise or good nutrition? I think they're different pillars. I think we have forgotten that the arts and aesthetics are essential for being human, like exercise and nutrition and good sleep patterns and habits. And I think without the arts and aesthetic experiences, I don't think we will heal, grow or thrive.

And we saw that in COVID where what was missed, people could exercise, people could eat well and people could sleep. We saw an increase in arts and aesthetic experiences during COVID because people were missing something. They were missing this need to express what they didn't understand this need to express grief, and pain, and fear and lack of connection. And so I think it is absolutely

a component of humanity that for many reasons had been sidelined. The scientific revolution, the age of reason, basically said, oh, creative expression, the arts are not important. What's important is logic and reason. And we started to devalue this creative expression, this knowing this way that we understood the world and ourselves and we're healthy, right? We really created health and wellbeing. We started to lose that because it didn't have societal value. If you look in the United States and you look at the way the arts have been literally gutted out of schools, and this has been going on since the seventies, we don't value the arts. And I think as a result, that actually has affected things like sleep,

has affected things like nutrition, you know, culinary arts are an art, you know, they're an art form. Good food is a kind of art. And so I think we need to really start to think about how we weave these things together that make us whole. Essentially, are you saying that to cultivate an aesthetic mindset, people need to expand and cultivate their sensory awareness, essentially an active way of being, and also to create an enriched environment around themselves?

Yes, yes I am. I think those things are incredibly important and they're not hard to do. This is not more in your day. This is not add something else to your already overloaded schedule and cognitive load. It's saying the little things make a difference as simple as making a cup of tea, just acknowledging the water in your shower of beginning to see where you actually are a maker, this idea of intention and not about being perfect, but beginning to start to change

the way you see what you're already doing and layering in that will make a huge difference. Just to essentially experience everything around you fully to notice and appreciate. Yes. Susan, I love the quote that you have at the beginning of your book. Could you please read it aloud? Yes. This is my favorite quote in the book. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. I love that.

What are the three takeaways you'd like to leave the audience with today? The first is we have proof that the arts and aesthetic experiences change our brains, our bodies and behavior. Number two is there is an art for that. And what I mean by that is that if you are experiencing health issues around dementia or family members are, if you are stressed and you're feeling caught inside your body, dance. If you're feeling overwhelmed and you don't know what you feel or what's happening, write poetry, write it down. Creative expression will help you understand what, at that moment, you can't find words for. And then the third is change your lens and change your life. When you are intentional and you see that these arts and

aesthetic experiences are all around you and you become more present and you feel your way through your life, everything changes. And that's at an individual level, at a family level, at a community level, and I would say at a societal level. I love that. And I love your favorite quote, that the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. Susan, thank you so much. I really enjoyed your book, Your Brain on Art. And I think it will really improve and transform people's lives

moment by moment throughout their days and years. Thank you. Thank you. It's really a pleasure. It is a pleasure. If you're enjoying the podcast, and I really hope you are, please review us on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps get the word out.

If you're interested, you can also sign up for the Three Takeaways newsletter at ThreeTakeaways.com where you can also listen to previous episodes. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook. I'm Lynne Toman and this is Three Takeaways. Thanks for listening.