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Rachel Zavala-Salazar

Professer Bustamamante

English1301-104

11 November 2023

Discovering the Persuasion of Scientific Journal “Neuroscience of Aesthetics.”

As more and more information is found within neuroscience, researchers must find ways

to successfully communicate their arguments or claims supporting past, current, and new

research. In the scientific peer-reviewed journal, “Neuroscience of Aesthetics.” by M.Ds Anjan

Chatterjee and Oshin Vartanian, the authors intend to communicate the connection between

aesthetics and our reactions to them with neurological functions to other neuroscientists looking

for a deeper understanding of the connection between neurological functions and aesthetic

experiences or how the brain processes visually aesthetic experiences. Here, ​The authors

successfully argue the existing claim that visually aesthetic experiences stem from the brain and

its structures. They do this by using graphs to allow the reader to visualize better what functions

they are discussing, knowledgeable language to assume that their audience is educated in the

subject, reinforcing who this article was made for, and establishing their credibility by using past

peer-reviewed research.

To begin with, The author uses graphs to visualize better where in the brain aesthetics is

processed. The article attempts to demonstrate that aesthetics and how people feel towards them

come directly from processing parts of the brain. The authors prove this by providing graphs,

precisely one indicating the different parts of the brain and their functions and another showing
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specific areas actively processing aesthetic information. The first graph consists of the different

parts of the brain color-coded in blue, pink, yellow, green, purple, red, and orange. According to

the article, these colors represent the areas of the brain, which are “mental representations of

emotion.”(Chatterjee Anjan and Oshin Vartanian. 174) The report also expands on these

structures and their function in the caption, “The more sensory system involves the lateral sector

of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and includes the lateral portions of BA 11 and 13, BA 47/12 (A

and C, purple)...anterior insula (D, yellow).. basolateral (BL) ..amygdala” (Chatterjee Anjan and

Oshin Vartanian. 175). The other graph consists of the two sides of the brain color-coded in

orange, yellow, and blue. This figure contains a caption stating: "The DMN is represented in

orange, whereas the external attention network is represented in blue. These two networks are

anticorrelated..”(Chatterjee Anjan and Oshin Vartanian. 179). indicating that the activity is

displayed by color. This strategy is effective for the author’s argument since it visualizes the

claim the authors are making those aesthetics are processed from “interaction between

emotion–valuation, sensory–motor, and meaning–knowledge neural systems.” (Chatterjee Anjan

and Oshin Vartanian 179). By providing a visual and logical display of their argument, they use

logos and give the audience evidence and reasoning for their opinion. This allows the authors to

put their arguments into a visual that shows their audience the context of their claim and helps

them understand where all the function they are discussing is happening.

In addition, The author uses language that can allow the audience to assume the authors

are knowledgeable. Since the article’s argument pertains to neurological functions regarding

aesthetics, the authors are expected to know the subject to a certain degree. Therefore, the

authors use terms and language niche to neuroscience, allowing the audience to assume the

authors know the subject they’re arguing about, and the authors themselves presume their
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audience is educated on the topic as well. The language pertaining to neuroscience can be found

throughout the article. Still, specifically when the authors describe the technology used within

neuroscience to analyze the brain, “​​in particular functional magnetic resonance imaging

(fMRI)—it is important to highlight some of the basic limitations of this approach. First and

foremost, by and large, neuroimaging techniques generate correlational data.”(Chatterjee Anjan

and Oshin Vartanian.173) When describing the part of the brain that processes details in human

faces, “Specifically, Biederman and colleagues observed that cortical -opioid receptor density is

greatest in those parts of the ventral visual pathway that process…”(Chatterjee Anjan and Oshin

Vartanian 175).Using language that pertains to professionals or people educated in neuroscience,

the author uses a rhetorical technique that is an example of ethos since it displays the knowledge

and, therefore, the author’s credibility on the subject. Using this language, the authors make a

convincing argument by allowing the audience to trust that they know what they are arguing,

making it more believable and likely to persuade readers. This is because the authors’ usage of

this rhetorical strategy appeals to other neuroscientists/neurologists by allowing them to read

more information without taking the time to explore and divulge the meanings, structures, and

functions of each technology and part of the brain mentioned. Using knowledgeable language

reinforces the idea that they are credible writers, making their argument more convincing by

using ethos to present their credibility and aids the authors in making a convincing argument.

Moreover, The authors use past research on this topic to reinforce their argument and

provide a credible source demonstrating the usage of ethos. To make themselves and their

argument more credible to their audience, the authors use past research on the neuroscience of

aesthetics to fortify their argument and signify that their evidence comes from a believable place.

The authors show previous research when they begin to divulge the history of their topic,
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showing that they investigated and consulted a credible source, For example, the usage of “The

publication of Gustav Theodor Fechner’s Vorschule der Aesthetik in 1876 marks the beginning

of psychological aesthetics.14,15 As a psychophysicist, Fechner worked under the assumption

that a correspondence exists between the physical properties of stimuli and the sensations that

they cause.” (qtd. Chatterjee & Vartanian 173). This statement proves to the audience that there

have been previous studies on the neuroscience of aesthetics. This usage of past research

exemplifies ethos because the preceding analysis has been done on a dependable source,

demonstrating that they have reason to justify this argument in their article. Using these past

scholarships, they can show that they themselves provide dependable research with this article

for future studies since they are certified to discuss the neuroscience of aesthetics and use past

studies like the one mentioned to support their argument better. Using ethos through past

research and claims on the author’s topic reinforces the idea that this is worth developing future

investigation for and current analysis, therefore aiding in making a convincing argument by

providing credibility. By proving their credibility when using past research, which demonstrates

that their argument is accurate and worth doing the research for, they appeal to other

neuroscientists by presenting themselves as a credible source for future research on

neuroaesthetics. The authors use this rhetorical appeal to establish their credibility by using past

research to argue their claims.

Overall, through dissecting the “Neuroscience of Aesthetics” by M.Ds Anjan Chatterjee

and Oshin Vartanian and their use of graphs, specialized language, and references to past

research, we better understand the rhetorical appeals that these writers use to reinforce their

claim. The significance of analyzing texts like this scientific journal is understanding what the

authors attempt to convey to their audience using rhetorical techniques. This is because when
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people read a scientific journal, they are plagued with knowledgeable words not known by the

average person. When gaining an understanding of the audience and goal of these articles, for

example, this one to reinforce the claim of neuroaesthetics for future similar articles, it can give

the average student or person reading through these articles a feeling of consolation for not

understanding the complex and peculiar terminology, The analysis of this scientific journal

benefits society in the context of broadening our understanding by examining rhetorical

situations better to comprehend the message of these authors and to whom. Therefore, knowing a

scientific journal like the former is intended for educated scholars; it allows people not to be

clouded by a sense of self-doubt and judgment that can be brought from experiencing difficulty

when interpreting these texts.

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Work Cited

Chatterjee, Anjan, and Oshin Vartanian. “Neuroscience of Aesthetics.” Annals of the New

York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1369, no. 1, 2016, pp. 172–194, Sue and Radcliffe Library

https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13035, Accessed 11 November 2023

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