The Environmental Neuroscience Lab at the University of Chicago
is interested in how the physical environment affects the brain and behavior. Previous findings from the ENL show that brief interactions with natural environments (such as walks in a park) can improve memory and attention by 20%. Studies in our lab have examined how interacting with natural environments promotes these improvements, investigating brain networks that underlie the relationship between environment and behavior. We hope to further understand which features of the natural environment lead to improvements in memory and attention as well as identify other manipulations that increase brain efficiency. Our current research examines how physical and social characteristics of urban spaces –including social cohesion, physical disorder, heat, and greenspace– (1) affect interactions between individuals in different neighborhoods and (2) relate to crime. In pursuit of this question, we are using deep learning approaches to analyze large set of social networking, image, and video data from sources including Twitter, Reddit, Yelp, Google Street View, and Sage. With a better understanding and quantification of the relationships between the brain, behavior, and the environment, we hope our research will influence the design of physical spaces in ways that will optimize human mental health, physical health, and overall well-being.
NEWS
Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life
The Virtue, Happiness and the Meaning of Life project is a 28-month project that uses research focused on self-transcendence to advance understanding of the interrelations of virtue, happiness, and the meaning of life. We believe that self-transcendence is the missing...
Pinpointing the Most Powerful Design Elements in City Parks
Henry Grabar, a journalist in New York, wrote a Science of Cities column for Next City about our research on what visual features contribute to the feeling of naturalness. Please click here for the article.
The ENL welcomes new lab members
November 1st, 2015 The Environmental Neuroscience Lab (ENL) would like to welcome: Post-Docs Cecilia Stenfors Stephen van Hedger Kyoung Whan Choe Graduate Students Hiroki Kotabe Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez Steven Porter Ishaan Guptasarma Research Assistants Francisco...