Neuroscientific Assessment of the Human Experience of Urban Environments

Objetivo

As cities grow and mental health challenges rise, understanding how urban environments affect the human mind and brain becomes increasingly urgent. URBRAIN pioneers a transformative approach in Environmental Neuroscience by investigating how built environments influence human experience, at the subjective, behavioural, physiological, and neural levels, in real-world settings. Building on the PI’s foundational work in Neuro-Architecture and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI), URBRAIN addresses long-standing methodological and theoretical limitations such as the use of artificial laboratory stimuli and the lack of mechanistic links between in-situ experience and brain plasticity. The project develops a scalable, multimodal research framework that integrates mobile EEG and MRI to explore how real-world environmental exposures impact brain function and long-term neuroplastic changes. URBRAIN unfolds in three interconnected work packages: WP1 constructs an open-access, ecologically valid urban stimulus database, annotated using state-of-the-art machine learning and spatial analysis techniques; WP2 systematically compares human multimodal responses across levels of immersion, from the lab to virtual reality, to real-world exploration, integrating in-situ EEG with pre-post intervention MRI data for a mechanistic explanation of brain-environment interactions; WP3 develops advanced data fusion pipelines, integrating neurophysiological, behavioural, and environmental data to create tools for assessing stress and restoration dynamics. URBRAIN’s open-science approach ensures international collaboration and reproducibility, while its methodological innovations set new standards for ecological validity and causal inference in Environmental Neuroscience. By providing critical evidence on how everyday urban experiences shape the brain, URBRAIN offers actionable insights for urban design, public health, and policy-making, paving the way for healthier and supportive cities.