Neurophysiological effects of museum modalities on emotional engagement with real artworks

TL;DR

This study uses lightweight EEG to explore how different digital and physical museum viewing modalities influence visitors' emotional engagement, revealing modality-specific engagement profiles and informing museum content optimization.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into how digital interpretive formats modulate emotional engagement during art viewing using in-situ EEG measurements.

Findings

Display-based videos induce high arousal and rapid neural activity.

Immersive projections promote calm and presence-oriented absorption.

Original artworks reflect internally regulated engagement.

Abstract

Museums increasingly rely on digital content to support visitors' understanding of artworks, yet little is known about how these formats shape the emotional engagement that underlies meaningful art experiences. This research presents an in-situ EEG study on how digital interpretive content modulate engagement during art viewing. Participants experienced three modalities: direct viewing of a Bruegel painting, a 180{\deg} immersive interpretive projection, and a regular, display-based interpretive video. Frontal EEG markers of motivational orientation, internal involvement, perceptual drive, and arousal were extracted using eyes-open baselines and Z-normalized contrasts. Results show modality-specific engagement profiles: display-based interpretive video induced high arousal and fast-band activity, immersive projections promoted calm, presence-oriented absorption, and original artworks reflected internally regulated engagement. These findings, relying on lightweight EEG sensing in an operational cultural environment, suggest that digital interpretive content affects engagement style rather than quantity. This paves the way for new multimodal sensing approaches and enables museums to optimize the modalities and content of their interpretive media.