Music-Based Learning Models from a Neuroaesthetic Perspective: Cognitive Mapping Approaches in Art Education

Abstract

This study aims to reconceptualize music-based learning models within the framework of neuroaesthetics through the perspective of cognitive mapping in art education. The primary purpose of the study is to examine how musical experience functions as a cognitive and aesthetic structure that shapes learning processes beyond conventional instructional models. The study adopts a theoretical and conceptual research design. A transdisciplinary methodological approach is employed, integrating findings from neuroaesthetics, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of education, and art pedagogy. Rather than producing empirical data, the study is based on a systematic synthesis and interpretive analysis of existing interdisciplinary literature. The findings indicate that music operates not merely as an affective or motivational tool but as a neuroaesthetic medium that restructures cognitive processes such as attention, memory, creativity, and motivation. When combined with cognitive mapping, musical structures function as aesthetic cartographies that organize knowledge through rhythm, resonance, and embodied temporality. This integration reveals that learning is not a linear transmission of information but an aesthetic process of cognitive composition. The study concludes that art education grounded in neuroaesthetic principles advances toward a genuinely transdisciplinary epistemic paradigm. Music-based cognitive mapping is positioned as a foundational learning model that aligns pedagogy with the brain’s aesthetic architecture and redefines learning as an ontological and aesthetic act rather than a purely instructional procedure.