00:00Well, singing, dancing, going to the cinema, reading a good book, it might sound a bit
00:04self-indulgent, but it could actually prolong your life and help fend off dementia. A new book,
00:10Art Cure, The Science of How Art Transforms Your Health, is out now, written by a professor of
00:16psychology at the University College London. It says creative activities reduce and even prevent
00:21depression, that they build up our cognitive reserve and tell us how just half an hour a week
00:27of art could improve our health. Its author Daisy Fancourt joins us now. Thanks so much for your
00:33time. Can I start by simply asking you, tell us the science bit. I mean, what do the arts do then
00:40to our brains and our bodies? This book is really covering an incredible body of randomised control
00:48trials and scientific experiments that help to show that when we engage in the arts, it activates
00:54pleasure and reward networks in our brain, boosting levels of dopamine. It reduces levels
00:59of stress hormones like cortisol in our bodies. It even reduces levels of inflammation in our immune
01:05system, which is linked to our mental and physical health, and even affects patterns of gene expression
01:11in our DNA, helping us to stay biologically younger. Is it any form of art then? I mean, you know,
01:18watching telly, does that count if I'm watching a programme on TV that I enjoy?
01:24Television is actually one of the art forms where we see more mixed results, but that's not so much
01:28because of the art, but because of the screen-based nature, which we know is more challenging for our
01:34brains to process. But actually across the book, I show that there are benefits from all different
01:39kinds of art forms, from going to galleries or music events, to taking part in arts and crafts,
01:45reading for pleasure, listening to music. How much then of art? I read that we need only a half an
01:51hour a week to see actual improvements in our health. This really depends on what you want to
01:58improve. If you're feeling stressed in the moment and you take part in a few minutes of crafts or
02:03listening to music, that might help to feel less stressed, but it's not going to have lifelong benefits.
02:09So the evidence shows that it's about building up regular sustained engagements. If we want to see
02:14associations with future risk of depression or for longer-term wellbeing outcomes.
02:19Because you talk about that, you talk about depression, dementia, that cognitive build-up
02:24and gene expression. So do the art actually physically change our brains then?
02:31They actually do. There's evidence from young infants showing that if we sing with babies and
02:36we do music with young children, it actually helps to develop neural architecture in the brain,
02:41actually altering the size and functioning of different brain regions. And we see this as well
02:46in the scientific studies, showing that older adults who engage more with the arts have better
02:51brain plasticity and actually have better cognitive reserve, better resilience against dementia.
02:58Okay, now I've understood it's better to go out and be more directly in touch with the art rather
03:02than being behind a screen. But you also point out nuances as well as to how we engage with art. Like
03:08a book, we shouldn't make a book too difficult if you like to read. Explain that to me a bit more.
03:13The concept here is that if it's art that we have absolutely no frame of reference for,
03:20we're going to find it much harder to process it. That's why some people find that modern art
03:24galleries, they're not quite sure what they're looking for. But if we choose art forms where we
03:29already have some sense of what to expect, then it helps our brains to know what to predict and when
03:34we're enjoying it. And prediction of things like predicting when a chorus will come back in a song
03:40or predicting what's likely to happen next in a story, that actually helps with the release of
03:46dopamine. Even if we get it wrong in our predictions, being able to make predictions is what helps with
03:51our pleasure response. Fascinating. And you also talk about when we're learning something like crochet
03:57or knitting, and it's the fact of failing, the benefit we get from having to unravel our work.
04:02One of the things about the arts is they can help to support core psychological needs,
04:08like a sense of mastery and control in our lives. And mastery is built up through trial and error.
04:14So if we try arts and we fail, but then we get better, that can improve that sense of confidence
04:19in our abilities. And that's a confidence that can then apply over to other aspects of our lives as
04:24well. So finally, what would you advise to people who aren't necessarily attracted to that world of
04:29culture and arts? They like quite factual and fixed forms of entertainment or knowledge.
04:37We're seeing really great opportunities to try arts. And there are so many different kinds of arts.
04:41I would say find a taster session for something. Novelty is actually really important for our brains as
04:46well. So find an opportunity to go to a class or to try a new activity through learning on YouTube,
04:53for example, and try and find something where you get that pleasure response that means it's going to be
04:57supporting your well-being. We can think about it a bit like diets, having vegetables every day and also
05:02having creativity in arts every day.
05:04A little bit of everything. And you can't go too far wrong. But you did say that this book, Art to Cure,
05:09is based on scientific research.
05:12Completely. It's covering thousands of clinical trials, laboratory experiments, neuroimaging,
05:18biological studies and epidemiological statistical studies as well.
05:22So it's completely based on a very rigorous and growing scientific body of research.
05:27Doesn't sound like it could do us any harm in any case. Daisy Fancourt, thanks so much for your time
05:31and joining us here on France 24 to talk about Art Cure, the signs of how the arts could transform our health.
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