I’d like to follow up my May 2009 column “Findings Should Help Scientists and Educators Join Forces” and describe a few other productive scientific collaborations. In that column I wrote about the term “neuroeducation”—the interaction between neuroscientists and educators. I said that these two groups are communicating with each other more now than ever before.

There is also growing interaction between those in neuroscience and those in the arts, an amalgamation sometimes referred to as “neuroaesthetics.” I recently had the opportunity to participate in two meetings that indicate how neuroeducation and neuroaesthetics are moving forward in tandem.

The first meeting, described in the article “Neuroscience, Performance Art Begin to Play off Each Other,” included members of the arts community and neuroscientists from Johns Hopkins University. Michael Kahn, director of the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., and Jonah Bokaer, a dancer and noted choreographer, joined scientists Amy Bastian, an expert in analyzing normal and abnormal movements in humans, Ed Connor, a neurophysiologist studying visual processing, and me. The session was moderated by Kevan Finneran of the National Academy of Sciences.

Traveling together to Washington, D.C., the Hopkins group shared feelings of trepidation, as it was not clear what we would have to say to our colleagues in the performing arts. However, Jonah Bokaer and Amy Bastion were immediately on the same wavelength as they compared how they each analyzed and studied movement. Of particular interest were Bokaer’s comments on a first performance of his new dance called “Replica” in which one dancer mirrors the movements of another. This led to a discussion of “mirror behavior” and the role of mirror neurons, as discussed in the Scientific American article “Mirroring Behavior.” Mirror neurons fire when a subject observes the movements of another subject. One can envision that learning sophisticated dance movements, such as those that required Bokaer and his partner to practice for months, could involve just such a system.

Scott Grafton, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, used imaging techniques to analyze brain activation in the learning and producing of dance-like movement. His studies identify a network of nerve cells he and others refer to as “the action observation network,” active as we observe and reproduce the movements of others. These studies combine the artistic productions of dancers such as Jonah Bokaer with the imaging analyses of scientists such as Amy Bastian and Scott Grafton, and are clearly the direction the field of neuroesthetics should go in order to encourage discussion between those in neuroscience and those in the field of dance.

Michael Kahn and Ed Connor compared experiences in the use of multiple sensory inputs, which are essential components of theater presentation. We in the neurosciences were introduced to the nuances of the use of color, lighting, movement and the simultaneous use of several sensory inputs that are part of Kahn’s production techniques. We all had much more to say to each other than we expected, and we could have talked among ourselves much longer.

The best parts of these sessions are often the questions. A group of theater students pressed to know how and when neuroscientists would provide information that would actually be applied to their craft. Ed Connor properly commented that this is a new area for most neuroscientists. The first step is to get the dialogue going, so that we can understand each others’ problems and questions. This meeting was a valuable start.

In the second meeting, leaders in education and neuroscience gathered at the University of California, Irvine, to discuss neuroeducation. This meeting was the brain child of the current president of the Society for Neuroscience, Tom Carew. To have someone of his stature advocating for neuroeducation, with the clout of the Society for Neuroscience behind him, gives this new field a boost in legitimacy that can only be helpful. There will be summary paper from this meeting shortly, so there will be more to say later. However, it became clear to me during the meeting that those in education are looking to those of us in the neurosciences for guidance. One of the things needed is a source for accurate information. Development of an online neuroeducation resource might be an outcome from this meeting.

There is great intellectual stimulation in being involved in these two overlapping new fields. You will have to excuse me as I try to pass some of this excitement on to you.