The brain and the environment
The brain needs stimulation
The world we perceive is not an objective reflection of the outside world. It’s more an image generated by the brain as a result of constant interaction with the environment. The brain constantly makes assumptions about the environment and compares them with the impressions arriving in the cerebrum via the sensory organs. So everyone lives in their own unique world to some extent.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Charité – University of Berlin are investigating how a life under extreme conditions affects the brain: they are analysing polar researchers who spend months at a time in the Antarctic and experience extreme environmental conditions and social isolation there. The Berlin researchers’ initial results show that under these living conditions a part of the hippocampus becomes smaller. This has an impact on spatial awareness, attention span and memory formation.
© MPG
Whether I go walking in the forest, or in the city – or even spend a long time living in extreme conditions such as the Antarctic – the environment in which humans live changes the brain. Environmental psychologist Simone Kühn of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin explains how.
Whether I go walking in the forest, or in the city – or even spend a long time living in extreme conditions such as the Antarctic – the environment in which humans live changes the brain. Environmental psychologist Simone Kühn of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin explains how.
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