The neural response to facial attractiveness
Abstract
What are the neural correlates of attractiveness? Using functional MRI (fMRI), the authors addressed this question in the specific context of the apprehension of faces. When subjects judged facial beauty explicitly, neural activity in a widely distributed network involving the ventral occipital, anterior insular, dorsal posterior parietal, inferior dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices correlated parametrically with the degree of facial attractiveness. When subjects were not attending explicitly to attractiveness, but rather were judging facial identity, the ventral occipital region remained responsive to facial beauty. The authors propose that this region, which includes the fusiform face area (FFA), the lateral occipital cortex (LOC), and medially adjacent regions, is activated automatically by beauty and may serve as a neural trigger for pervasive effects of attractiveness in social interactions.
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Facial attractiveness is evaluated by a network of cortical regions, including the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior insular cortex, with the degree of activity in these regions correlating with perceived facial attractiveness.
“Facial attractiveness is additionally evaluated by a network of cortical regions, including the lateral OFC, ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), and the anterior IC (aIC), with the degree of activity in these regions correlating with perceived facial attractiveness, which is then translated into a romantic interest [104,105].”
From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [104]
Participants shown images of novel attractive opposite-sex individuals had rapid activation of the nucleus accumbens, suggesting rewarding properties of viewing attractive faces.
“Participants shown images of novel attractive opposite-sex individuals had rapid activation of the NAc, suggesting rewarding properties of viewing attractive faces [104].”
From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [104]
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- Authors
- Chatterjee, A., Thomas, A., Smith, S. E., & Aguirre, G. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Venue
- Neuropsychology
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 135-143
- ISSN
- 0894-4105 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1559
- OpenAlex
- W1999320822
- Cited by
- 239
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Sponsor name not included (RO1-DC008779, K12 HD043245, K08 MH 7 2926–01)
- Burroughs-Wellcome
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Keywords
- facial attractiveness, face perception, fusiform face area, lateral occipital cortex, anterior insula, medial prefrontal cortex, face identification
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Beauty, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Computer-Assisted Instruction, Face, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Young Adult
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