research interests
My interest in neuroscience research started with my studies in architecture. Admittedly, this sounds like an unusual inspiration, at least on the outset. Nonetheless, it was from my first exposure to architectural thought and practice at Carnegie Mellon University that I became interested in how architecture affects the human experience. For example, how does the design of buildings, structures, landscape or interiors alter the quality of life? Through our own experiences, we know that our lives and interactions are guided by our physical surroundings. Neuroscience research can reveal neural correlates that explain how the environment effects perception and experience.
Architects are skilled at designing based on intuition, but not on scientific knowledge. A potential downfall in failing to understand the implications of architecture is poor design which could lead to destructive outcomes. Therefore design decisions have overarching effects for the users and community. One of the most notable examples was the low-income housing projects of the mid-20th century. Pruitt-Igoe was a massive development of high-rise buildings in St. Louis MO, meant to solve the growing need for subsidized housing. Within only a few years the buildings had countless vacancies, became crime ridden, and were in disrepair from vandalism. Many components of the building's innovative architectural design contributed to this failure and to a lowered quality of life for the residents. This can be avoided with a clearer understanding of architecture's implications on the human experience through empirical research.
Neuroscientists have recently shown that the adult brain is plastic and can be affected for instance by modifications in behavior and the environment. Generally, research has found that enriching both behavioral and environmental factors lead to cognitive improvements and anatomical changes in animal models. The examples in which poor architectural design had negative consequences on human society as well as the life of individuals, suggest that similar environmental and behavioral factors might have similar effects in humans. This shows how important neuroscientific research in this field might prove in the future for improving the status of living. A clearer understanding of how people respond behaviorally to particular environmental surroundings, such as architectural design, and what neural mechanisms underlie these effects, could then be used as a foundation for architectural decisions. Architects could rely less on intuition and thereby reduce the variability in the design process.
Neuroscience is quite similar to architecture in that both fields solve problems given specific sets of assumptions and constraints. The unique manner in which questions are asked and the process by which they are solved is what endears me to architecture and what draws me to neuroscience. While we can not prove that quality design is essential, neuroscience is our best means of understanding the relationship between architecture's effect on human behavior and cognition. Being aware that research in neuroscience will not directly affect architectural design in the immediate future, I have become interested in pursuing the research that will create the foundation for such applied research to occur. It will take a multidisciplinary approach to truly understand the relationship between the environment and human experience.
