Why consuming art every day is so good for your brain

Since it was released in 1987, the anti-drug ad “your brain on drugs” has become iconic. But what about your brain on art? GBH Arts and Culture reporter James Bennett II joined Morning Edition co-hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to discuss a new book, “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.” This transcript has been edited lightly.

Paris Alston: Happy Friday to you. Have you been consuming some art this morning?

James Bennett II: Yeah, actually. “Yams” by Fetty Wap.

Alston: Nice, I like it. So I'm curious about what “Yams” has done to your brain this morning, James. But in general, what happens to our brains when we engage with art?

Bennett: So I talked to the authors, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, and they [explored] this basic idea — we’re born with 100 billion neurons. And those are necessary to how we grow and interact with the world. And the more we engage sensually, the more neural pathways we're able to build up, into the quadrillions.

And they were saying that there's so much going on in the world at the time that if we were to, like, process and keep everything in our brain, what was important, like all the sites that we see and sounds that we hear, that's just overload. And so our brains determine what's important. And there's this concept called salience. And the best way to illustrate that is imagine a sheet of paper with a bunch of black dots and one red dot. Your brain is going to focus on that red dot and log that as the important thing and disregard everything else. So the point is that art is one of the most salient kinds of stimuli. And so those are typically experiences that we get as either makers or beholders of art that are really good at creating those on pathways.

Jeremy Siegel: So what are we talking about when we talk about art here? I guess that's kind of a philosophical question, but like, if I look at a picture, is this is going to help my brain grow in this way or listen to music, what does it refer to?

Bennett: I wish we had the time for me to go into an art class that I took like ten years ago. So it's not just visual art, which I think comes to mind when we think of the word art. This applies to film, music, digital art, poetry, creative writing, any of those artistic pursuits.

Alston: So we hear a lot of that with exercise, right? Experts will say, as long as you do some physical activity, 20 minutes a day, you don't have to be running on a treadmill for 20 minutes. You don't have to be doing all this strenuous exercise, right? You can just take a walk or you can dance around. Is the same applicable here, like in terms of both time and quantity or quality of what the art you're consuming?

Bennett: It's like a yes and no thing. The 10,000 steps thing is interesting because it seems that we use that number as like, oh, the day is at 11:59, I'm just going to go and get these steps in.

Alston: You're saying 10,000 steps like if you're using a Fitbit or your phone's tracking your calorie count.

Bennett: Right. But the thing about the art — there's a 20 minute thing that, you know, they kept coming back to about that being the the magic number. But the important thing is that should not be crammed into your day. It should be engaged with meaningfully. Like if you sit around all day, I mean, you do 10,000 steps, it's not the same, I guess, benefit of really giving it and feeding yourself that activity over time. So here's what Magsamen had to say about 20 minutes and its importance to our brains:

Magsamen [previously recorded]: Whether you are a maker or a beholder, this idea of 20 minutes has significant and immediate impact on lowering cortisol or increasing mood on helping to create homeostasis, to regulate sort of multiple systems. And so, at a very baseline, we see 20 minutes as a way to begin to start to feel how an art experience really changes your physiology.

Bennett: And Ross added that it doesn't matter if you're good at it, just engage with the art too, and don't be scared to try something out.

Siegel: So one of the things that was mentioned there was the idea of art increasing your mood, making you happier. Does that assume that if you're listening to a song or if you're watching a movie to help lift your mood, that it has to be a happy movie, a happy song?

Bennett: I asked them about this, and it doesn't. I brought up “A Little Life,” the novel by Hanya Yanagihara and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony — things that by acclamation are really well done but are just emotionally shattering and soul crushing. And they said that tonally heavy art helps us move through tough places. It's cathartic, and that's useful, too. So even when you're getting some of that heavy sound —

Alston: Like the little Tchaikovsky we're hearing.

Bennett: Yeah, yeah. Towards the end of that, you know, it just destroys your soul.

Siegel: My soul is being destroyed a little bit.

Alston: It’s the duality of life, right? The good with by bad.

Siegel: I can feel my neurons increasing in quadrillions.

Bennett: Listen, have you seen this movement right now, where doctors are prescribing, food as health care? So this is also happening in the brain space as well, with art and nature. Ross told me that in Canada and England doctors are prescribing a 15-minute museum trip or this thing called the “nature pill.” It's not really a pill — get outside because as she says, nature is just a wonderful stimulant for the brain.

Ivy Ross [previously recorded]: Nature is the most neuro-aesthetic place there is. It has sound, color, light, temperature, shape. And so some doctors are prescribing nature pills because of what happens just in 15 minutes of being in nature.

Alston: There's so much you were just mentioning, all the sights we see when we go outside, especially during spring, there's flowers, there's insects, bees. There's art all around us. And James, what are some of your other favorite art forms to consume?

Bennett: I've just gotten back into movies as a hobby. Thank you, Criterion.

Siegel: I just got a Criterion Channel subscription the other day. I've been moving through them.

Bennett: It sounds like we're having a movie club.

Siegel: Let's do it.

Alston: I want to join too!

Siegel: I watched the “Samurai” yesterday. Great movie, check it out.

Alston: Hey, we just made some art right here in the past seven minutes, if I must say so myself. James, thanks so much.

Bennett: Thanks, y’all.