Art for reward's sake: Visual art recruits the ventral striatum

► Reward circuitry activated by artistic status of image independent of content. ► Activation independent of esthetic preference, familiarity, and response time. ► Ventral striatum activity driven by visual cortex for art images. ► Ventral striatum not activated by non-art images matched for content. ► Ventral striatum not driven by regions correlated with esthetic preference ratings.