Neuroarthistory is a term coined by Professor John Onians, an art historian at the University of East Anglia in 2005.
In 2005, he began working with Zeki, who is a professor of Neurobiology at University College London (and founder of Neuroesthetics) to study what goes on in the brains of artists.
They used neuroimaging and studied the neurobiological processes of artists such as the painters of the paleolithic Chauvet Cave art.
"[5] In September 2006, Onians presented the results of the research to the BA Festival of Science in a lecture called 'Cracking the real Da Vinci Code: what happens in the artist's brain?'.
[7] Professor Onians has said that neuroarthistory can be used "both to better understand the nature of familiar artistic phenomena such as style, and to crack so far intractable problems such as ‘what is the origin of art?’"[6] According to a press release, neuroarthistory can explain why "Florentine painters made more use of line and Venetian painters more of colour.