Beauty and its perception: historical development of concepts, neuroaesthetics, and gender-differences

Perception, appreciation, preference, pleasure, emotion, truth, interpretation: these are only few of the concepts we encounter when we try to understand the intrinsic meaning of beauty. The secret of the sensations we feel in front of something beautiful has accompanied us since the origin of humankind, when our first ancestors with sufficient cognitive abilities understood and appreciated beauty. The representation of beauty occurs through the production first, and the fruition then, of the works of art. We have many useful instruments to approach the understanding of what beauty really is: from the philosophical theories of aesthetics, to the evolutionary influence on our system of perception and production of art works, to the tools of neuroaesthetics, which explore the brain structures and the processes which mediate the aesthetic experience. In addition, the neuroanatomical studies on the gender differences in the perception of beauty, and their surprising details enhance and refine our comprehension of aesthetics.