BrainScape · How the physical environment shapes the human brain

BrainScape constitutes a timely approach to study a widely unexplored aspect in the neurosciences, namely whether and how the physical environment that surrounds us day in, day out impacts our brain, well-being and mental health. BrainScape aims to spearhead the emerging field of Environmental Neuroscience and will make an impact by building a knowledge base for evidence-based urban planning to promote healthy living environments with significant practical implications. Given that our environment is undergoing rapid changes (urbanization, climate change), understanding how these changes may impact humanity is a crucial challenge of our time. First evidence suggests that long-term as well as day-to-day variations in exposure to solitary environmental factors (e.g. air pollution) may be relevant. The goal of BrainScape is twofold: (1) to identify the “active ingredients” of the environment by introducing a more holistic understanding of the environment, as a multi-layered complex phenomenon and (2) to gain insight into the pathways and mechanisms by which the environment affects the brain and mental health. To accomplish this, BrainScape will utilize existing large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal neuroimaging data sets (UK Biobank, NAKO, HCHS, IMAGEN) to identify the most important features of the physical environment. These features will be at the core of prospective controlled studies, including a discordant monozygotic twin study. Here we will combine the assessment of objectively experienced (e.g., wearable sensors) and subjectively perceived environment with brain plasticity measured using 7 T MRI. The identification of the most influential environmental salutogenic features will inform a targeted intervention study and experiments in highly controlled lab environments using innovative VR technology combined with fMRI and fNIRS. The results will unravel the “active ingredients” of nature and the neural mechanisms by which they affect human beings.