The impact of walking in different urban environments on brain activity in older people

ABSTRACT

Neurourbanism looks to understand the relationship between urban environments and mental well-being and is well placed to assess the role of these environments on the urbanised and ageing global population. This study builds on research using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) to understand the impact of urban environments (busy, quiet and green urban spaces) on brain activity. Ninety-five older participants aged over 65 years undertook one of six walks in an urban neighbourhood, transitioning between two distinct environmental settings. This study explores changes in alpha (associated with relaxation) and beta (associated with attention) brain activity recorded during walking in differing urban environments. Neural activity significantly varies as participants walk between urban busy and green settings, with reduced levels of low beta activity in the green setting, suggesting attention changes consistent with Attention Restoration Theory. Levels of alpha activity significantly varied between the urban busy and the urban quiet settings, with increases in the urban busy setting. There were no significant differences in EEG activity between the urban green and urban quiet settings, suggesting that the magnitude of environmental contrast between the urban busy context and other urban settings is an important factor in understanding the effects of these spaces on brain activity.

KEYWORDS:

• EEG
• mobility
• urban
• Emotiv
• older adults

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Agnès Patuano and Esther Rind for their assistance in collecting the experimental data and to Gary Bennett (The Stats People) for his assistance with the analysis software. Further thanks are given to all the participants who took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was undertaken under the Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP) research programme (2013-2017), supported by Research Councils UK (EPSRC, ESRC and AHRC) as part of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Programme (grant reference number EP/K037404/1) under Principal Investigator Catharine Ward Thompson and part of a work package led by Co-Investigators Peter Aspinall, Jenny Roe and Richard Coyne.

Notes on contributors

Chris Neale

Chris Neale is a researcher at the University of Virginia interested in understanding how urban and rural environments can impact health and wellbeing in a range of participants, but with particular interest in older adults. His background is in cognitive neuroscience, and he continues to use various neuroimaging methods to assess brain activity in research populations.

Peter Aspinall

Peter Aspinall is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies at Heriot-Watt University and an Honorary Fellow in the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His main research interests are in visual function and quality of life; environmental psychology and inclusive design, with a particular emphasis on quantitative methods. He has worked with Professor Catharine Ward Thompson on a number of projects focused on older people’s perceptions and experience of the outdoor environment.

Jenny Roe

Jenny Roe is an environmental psychologist who explores how our interactions with the world shape our health, wellbeing and behaviors. She specializes in understanding how access to restorative environments in our cities create and sustain our health and wellbeing. Her research aims to advance social justice by tackling health and environmental inequities relating to the built environment. She directs the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia.

Sara Tilley

Sara Tilley is a transport geographer, interested in exploring the links between mobility in the urban environment and health and wellbeing, especially in younger and older age. She is now Study Manager and Research Fellow on OPENspace’s NIHR-funded research into the effectiveness of the Forestry Commission Scotland woodland improvement programme, Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT).

Panagiotis Mavros

Panagiotis Mavros is a researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) of the Singapore-ETH Centre, where he is the Project Coordinator of the project Cognition, Perception and Behaviour in Urban Environments. His research is focused in on wayfinding behaviours in complex multilevel environments, using psychophysiological methods to study the experience of urban space, and the translation of spatial cognition research into design and policy.

Steve Cinderby

Steve Cinderby is a Senior Researcher at the SEI centre in the University of York specialising in community resilience, wellbeing and participatory research methods. He has specialised in the development of communication approaches for improved environmental decision-making outcomes. These have been aimed at increasing knowledge sharing, improving the capacity for pro-environmental behavioural change, and boosting local community resilience and wellbeing.

Richard Coyne

Richard Coyne researches and teaches on the cultural, social and spatial implications of computers and pervasive digital technologies. He has published eleven books with Pitman, Addison-Wesley, Routledge, Bloomsbury and MIT Press on digital technologies. He recently published Network Nature: The place of Nature in the Digital Age (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), and a book on the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce: Peirce for Architects (Routledge, 2019).

Neil Thin

Neil Thin specialises in appreciative social planning, i.e. engaging multidisciplinary happiness and wellbeing scholarship in public policy and practice. He also has over 20 years of practical and policy experience working towards the reduction of poverty and promotion of justice and wellbeing in poorer countries, working at all levels from grassroots to governmental and international official agencies. He has frequently served as a social development adviser and trainer for international development agencies such as the UK Department for International Development, UN Agencies, the World Bank, and international NGOs.

Catharine Ward Thompson

Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), and Director of the OPENspace research centre. Her research focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments, environment-behaviour interactions, landscape design for older people, children and teenagers, and salutogenic environments. Catharine also has expertise in the history and theory of urban park design and conservation, the history of landscape design, and landscape aesthetics and perception.