Jill Harness
The Neuroscience of Mona Lisa
by Jill Harness - January 6, 2010 - 9:28 AM

monalisasmiiii

The magic of the Mona Lisa is the fact that everyone sees something different in her smile. Last fall, BoingBoing reported that researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, believe this is due to a trick caused by the mind struggling to understand different types of visual information, such as size, clarity, brightness and the location of an object.

Luis Martinez Otero, a neuroscientist at the institute, says Leonardo Da Vinci fully intended to create this type of reaction from Mona Lisa’s viewers. “He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because that’s what he saw in the street.”

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Comments (3)

  1. Hmmm……No wrinkles and a frozen, awkward enigmatic smile.

    Simple! This is visual proof that Leonardo was experimenting with Botox; Mona was his test subject!!

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 1-6-2010 at 10:23 am

  2. If we ever figure out how to reanimate the mind of those past, I can’t wait to hear Da Vinci, Leonardo, etc; to claim that they were just painting pretty pictures and that there were no subliminal messages or ‘points’ to their work. :P

    posted by Bakedpotatoes on 1-6-2010 at 2:40 pm

  3. Bakedpotatoes…. I feel the EXACT same way about books, I hated High School English becuase you’re constantly looking for hidden meanings that may or may not be there. I love reading, but it just took all the fun out of enjoying a story.

    To Kill A Mockingbird for example, the only book Harper Lee ever wrote. Countless essays and tests on the hidden message with the stick of gum in the tree…

    In an interview Lee said its JUST a story.

    posted by ashley on 1-6-2010 at 4:40 pm

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