When we say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we may be wrong by an inch or so.
According to scientists, the secret of what we admire in fact lies in the medial orbito-frontal cortex - an area of the brain just behind the eyes.
University College London researchers say it is the part of the brain that lights up when we encounter something beautiful, whatever our taste.
Brain expert Semir Zeki asked 21 young men and women to rate the beauty of a selection of paintings and pieces of music. Their brains were scanned as they viewed and listened to them.
The study, published in the journal PLoS One, revealed the medial orbito-frontal cortex was more active when the subjects were looking at or listening to something they really liked.
Professor Zeki said:" Almost anything can be considered art but we argue that only creations whose experience correlates with activity in the medial orbito-frontal cortex would fall into the classification of beautiful art."
"A painting by Francis Bacon may have great artistic merit but may not qualify as beautiful"，he added.
The finding that both the artwork and the music tripped this same area of the brain is important, as it had been suggested different types of beauty trigger different pleasure centers in the brain.


据英国《每日邮报》7月7日报道：我们常说情人眼里出西施，这或许并不完全正确。

科学家称，事实上，我们对事物欣赏与否，取决于位于我们眼睛后面的大脑区域，即内侧眶额叶皮质。

伦敦大学学院的研究人员说，一旦我们遇到美好事物，大脑的这个区域就会兴奋起来，与个人品味无关。

脑部专家森马•泽克让21名年轻男女给一些绘画作品和音乐片段评分。在年轻人欣赏和聆听的过程中，研究人员对他们的大脑进行了扫描。


研究表明，当被测试者听到或看到他们所喜欢的东西时，他们的内侧眶额叶皮质就更加活跃。该研究发表在《公共科学图书馆•综合》期刊上。

泽克教授说："几乎所有事物都可以被说成是艺术，但是我们认为只有那些能与内侧眶额叶皮质的活动产生关系的创作才能归类到美的艺术中。"


"弗朗西斯•培根的画作或许有其艺术价值，但也称不上是美的艺术品"，他补充说。


研究发现，艺术品与音乐刺激了大脑中相同的一个区域，这点很重要，因为它暗示着不同的美可能会使大脑的不同部位产生愉悦。

• encounter [in´kauntə] vt.&n.偶然相遇；冲突 (初中英语单词)
• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
• expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
• journal [´dʒə:nəl] n.日记；日报；杂志 (初中英语单词)
• painting [´peintiŋ] n.绘画；(油)画；着色 (初中英语单词)
• selection [si´lekʃən] n.选择；选拔；精选物 (高中英语单词)
• classification [,klæsifi´keiʃən] n.分类(法)；等级 (高中英语单词)
• artistic [ɑ:´tistik] a.艺术的；有美感的 (高中英语单词)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
• trigger [´trigə] n.扳机 vt.触发，启动 (英语六级单词)