ERIC KANDEL: I'm Eric Kandel. I'm a professor at Columbia University. I work on the brain, and I've recently developed an interest on the relationship between brain science and how one responds to works of art.

In The Burghers of Calais, we see six men who have committed themselves to sacrificing their lives in order to save the city of Calais. So here are these people who have a common catastrophe confronting them: they think they're going to be killed, beheaded. If you walk around this, you see that each person, in addition to sharing this common purpose, is also responding in individual ways with differently distorted faces. So some are responding with resignation: you know, "This is the right thing, I'm doing this for my people. Others do it, you know, extreme anguish, bitterness, fear. To see how both the commonality and the distinctiveness is depicted in one set of sculptures is very, very powerful.

NARRATOR: As we perceive a work of sculpture, our brain calls on several interacting systems. We analyze the faces and poses, and reconstruct the forms in our own imagination—all instantaneously. Our brains also form an interpretation of the subject's state of mind, which enables empathy.

ERIC KANDEL: Sculpture's unique features are its three-dimensionality, encouraging the beholder to walk around it, interact with it, physically and emotionally. Its tactile qualities interact with our visual system and reinforce the sensory impression it makes on us. And from a neurobiological point of view, this sculpture brings everything into play.