Mind the gap: neuroaesthetics of photographs

Over the last years, the effect of pictures upon the observer is being investigated with experimental methods. This new field is called neuro-aesthetics. It tries to get light on image perception from a neuroscientific point of view. Usually, in defining the standard experimental procedures, little attention is paid to the type of image employed. It is not entirely clear, for example, if perception of photographs may produce a different aesthetic response from perception of paintings or, generally, from images hand-rendered. Moreover, it is completely unknown if this modulation depends on perceptual (bottom-up) or cognitive (top-down) factors. The first aim of this article is to show the reasons for which photographs aesthetically would differ from other types of pictures; the second aim is to summarizeexperimental evidences showing this difference.