Burnishing the Brain 

Can visiting a museum help you conquer feelings of loneliness, or even stave off the advent of dementia? It sure can’t hurt. In their 2023 bestseller Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross explore the wide variety of connections that contemporary neuroscience has established between artistic practice, aesthetic experience and optimal cognitive functioning. Now the co-authors of what has been called a life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics – which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts – are coming to town as part of UCSB Reads, speaking at Campbell Hall on May 8.