The Neural Architecture of Aesthetic Cognition: A Predictive-Processing Essay in Support of the TransformativeArts Framework
Scott Thomas Carter
Arts September 19, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/arts15090212 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that aesthetic cognition is a core mode of thinking, supported by the convergence of predictive-processing neuroscience from 2019 to 2025 showing that aesthetic experience across music, visual art, narrative, and dance engages the brain's predictive machinery and the default mode network. Proposes that one cognitive process reads distinct artistic domains in a common way, that this process can be corrupted from within a work, and that its cultivation is a testable protective factor against manipulation. |
Abstract
The TransformativeArts Framework (TAF) holds that the neural systems recruited to make and perceive art are not peripheral modules but expressions of the core architecture of thought. This essay asks whether contemporary neuroscience supports that claim, and it identifies three observations that the predictive-processing literature on the arts has not yet made. Peer-reviewed neuroscience from 2019 to 2025 on music, visual art, narrative, and dance, together with recent work on manipulation, was read through the lens of predictive processing, with competing accounts presented alongside supporting ones. Across these domains, aesthetic experience recurrently engages the brain’s predictive machinery and the default mode network (DMN). Building on that convergence, the essay advances three observations: that a single cognitive process reads distinct artistic domains in a common way, which is what makes aesthetic cognition transferable; that this process can be corrupted from within a work, not only by external deception; and that the difference can be identified by comparing a communication against defined patterns of deception and of effective, good-faith exchange. The essay concludes that aesthetic cognition is a mode of thinking rather than a specialized add-on, and that its cultivation is a testable protective factor against manipulation.