Susan Magsamen, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Your Brain on Art, How the Arts Transform Us, believes we are genetically wired for sensory experiences that are transcendent — and potent for treating mental disorders.

Presented by Morris Arts at the Morris Museum in Morris Township, Magsamen’s talk on a frosty morning last week drew a large audience wanting to know more.

“I came to help this community come together and help all the art institutions, the academic institutions, the cultural arts groups, to think about how to solve problems here through the arts — which this community is already doing. I want to help amplify that work,” the author said.

Tom Werder, executive director of the Morris Arts, said sharing the healing power of arts “is core to Morris Arts’ mission as we face the national mental health crises accelerated by the pandemic.”

As director of the International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University, Magsamen is dedicated to understanding the science behind what we instinctively know to be true: Music, art, dance, poetry and beautiful environments of all kinds make us happy and relaxed.

Magsamen explained how neuroaesthetics can provide some answers. “Certified arts therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, is a field, and primarily it’s a field of psychology,” she said. She contends exposure to the arts has significantly more health potential than is currently known.

“My work is in the field of neurophysiology and biology. It’s the study of how arts and sciences, working together, can measurably change brain and body behavior. It’s a new field that’s being built before your eyes,” she told the audience.

Neuroaesthetics has the potential to help conventional medicine find effective treatments  for conditions such as autism, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and ADD, Magsamen said.

MEMORIES…

Charts projected on a large screen inside the museum’s Bickford Theater illustrated how the brain functions. We have 100 billion neurons that connect in neural pathways, said Magsamen, pointing to pulsating white threads against a blue background.

“When you make a memory or are learning something, you are actually making more of these neural pathways,” she said.

Magsamen cited pioneering studies in 1964 by Marian Diamond — also famous for studying Albert Einstein’s brain — proving that brain anatomy changes according to what it experiences.

Diamond’s experiments demonstrated that enriched environments increased the cerebral cortex and the myelin sheath on neurons by 6 percent in just two weeks. Impoverished environments produce the opposite effect, Magsamen said.

Using visual aides, she explained how advanced technology now can microscopically visualize the human brain to reveal its reactions to a stimulation of the senses – seeing, hearing, taste, and smell.

New technology also allows neuroaesthetics to gather data globally, with the assistance of the Aspen Institute, The World Health Organization, the World Bank and the National Endowment for the Arts, who all are on board, according to Magsamen, who wrote Your Brain on Art, her eighth book, with Ivy Ross.

“We are not alone,” she said.

In addition to her faculty position at Johns Hopkins and directorship of the Center, Magsamen is also the co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint, an organization that interacts with the public and private sectors.

One of its projects is a partnership with opera star Renée Fleming, to fund investigative reports by 10 research teams and gather evidence connecting arts and brain health.

Another is a website, soon to be launched, that Magsamen calls “a virtual watering hole for anybody, anywhere, where you can come, create a profile and share your work.”

Attorney Frank Vitolo, a Morris Arts trustee for 15 years, said this was the kickoff of the nonprofit’s new Arts and Health initiative.

“We’ll be having additional talks and events that stress the connection between art and health and ways in which companies and societies are using art as a way to cure disease. It’s amazing,” said Vitolo.

As the program drew to a close, Magsamen recounted her definition of the arts.

“When I talk about the arts, I talk about everything,” she said, citing the confections of Andrea Lekberg of The Artist Baker in Morristown as examples of creative expression.

Magsamen’s list also includes sewing, knitting, gardening, architecture, theater, dance, improvisation, and many more activities.

To demonstrate the power of music to elevate well being and camaraderie, Magsamen invited the audience to stand and sing God Bless America, bringing a rousing end to the program.

Article courtesy of the Morristown Green.