Smarter city planning: MSU researchers use brain activity to predict visits to urban areas

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Researchers from Michigan State University are the first to measure the brain activity of people who had never been to a specific city and then use this brain activity to predict other people’s actual visits to places around that city. This offers potential applications for urban planning and design that addresses the well-being of residents and visitors. For this study, researchers used principles from the budding field of neurourbanism, which involves measuring the human brain to predict and understand the influence of urban environments on behavior. The study’s findings suggest that the neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex — a key region in the brain’s reward system involved in valuation and decision-making — can predict people’s visitation patterns to or away from a specific environment. EAST LANSING, Mich. – Urbanization, the process by which cities and towns expand in size and population, is rapidly advancing globally, and the percentage of people living in urban environments has increased from 33% in 1960 to 57% in 2023.

Now, researchers from Michigan State University are the first to measure brain activity to make predictions that could help inform enhanced urban planning and design that addresses the well-being of residents and visitors.

Dar Meshi, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations and director of the Social Media and Neuroscience Lab at MSU, led the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Cities and included collaborators from the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Together, they found that the brain’s reward system can shape human behavior within urban environments and aid in designing cities that promote sustainable living.

Because urban areas typically offer better access to educational and employment opportunities, advanced health care facilities and diverse cultural and recreational activities, they can contribute to a higher standard of living. However, the swift pace of urbanization also gives rise to challenges such as lack of green spaces, increased traffic noise, and social inequities, emphasizing the need for sustainable urban development strategies that prioritize health, safety and well-being for residents.

To better understand how to create proactive urban planning frameworks, Meshi and his co-authors used principles from the budding field of neurourbanism — the study of measuring the human brain to predict and understand the influence of urban environments on behavior — to conduct the study.   

“Neurourbanism has the potential to contribute significantly to the design of cities that prioritize cognitive, emotional and physical well-being,” Meshi said. “By prioritizing the well-being of individuals, cities can create environments that are conducive to the overall health and happiness of their inhabitants.”

Neurourbanism employs brain-scanning tools, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. FMRI detects changes in blood oxygen levels, known as the blood oxygen level dependent, or BOLD, signal, and uses this signal to identify the brain regions that are active during specific tasks or mental processes. When neurons — cells that send and receive signals in your brain — become more active, they require more oxygen. Blood flows to the active areas to meet this demand, and the fMRI detects where changes in blood oxygenation levels occur.

Meshi and his colleagues focused on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or vmPFC, a key region in the brain’s reward system involved in valuation and decision-making.

“Previous neuroforecasting research has used activity in the brain’s reward system, including the vmPFC, to predict a variety of population behaviors, such as food choices, music purchasing, crowdfunding outcomes and stock market prices, making it a valuable region to study with respect to urban planning,” said Ardaman Kaur, a postdoctoral researcher in the MSU Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering and one of the study’s authors.

For this study, 77 participants in the U.S. who had never visited Lisbon, Portugal, underwent fMRI scanning while viewing and rating photos depicting urban environments in the city. The photos were geotagged images posted on the photo-sharing application Flickr. The density of photos for each region served as a proxy for measuring visitation patterns around Lisbon.

The findings from the study suggest that the neural activity in the vmPFC can predict people’s visitation patterns to or away from a specific environment.

“People typically make decisions to maximize value, and because certain urban areas induce greater value-related brain activity than others, people in the city are more likely to travel to, or take pictures of, those certain areas,” Meshi said.

According to Meshi, the results of the study imply that the vmPFC may be involved in processing a range of value judgements within urban environments, including perceptual, cognitive, social and cultural values.

“Individuals may be drawn to visit urban spaces not only because of their aesthetic appeal, but also due to their sociocultural relevance,” he said. “This could include places with historical significance or social importance, which may not necessarily be aesthetically pleasing, but still hold considerable value.”

Kaur said this research sheds important light on how our brains may encode information related to urban environments and drive visits around these environments.

“The insights from our study can potentially aid in the development of future human-centric cities, specifically tailored to how our brains perceive and interact with the environment,” Kaur said.

Meshi believes the neurourbanistic approach used in his team’s work can contribute to refining urban planning strategies, ultimately fostering enhanced livability and well-being.

“By incorporating these findings into the urban infrastructure and services, we may be able to create cites that are more efficient and enhance population livability and make it easier for residents to get from place to place,” he said.

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