Sunday, December 11, 2016

How the Environment Affects the Brain


UK geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison has been exploring how the environment affects the human brain. Daniel has been walking across the UK while wearing an Emotiv sensor which records his brain activity. The sensor is able to record Daniel's stress levels and provide insights into how the environment affects his mood and happiness.

National Geographic has been reporting on Daniel's progress in an on-going report called There’s Never Been A Better Time To Make Our Cities Wild. The report so far includes three interactive maps which allow you to explore the results of Daniel's walks in Edinburgh, the Lake District and London.

The Google Map for each of these walks show the route of Daniel's walk and an interactive graph of the brain sensor readings captured on the walk. The graph shows Daniel's stress and relaxation readings during each walk. The map and the graph are synchronized so it is possible to see which areas on the walk caused the most stress or induced a more relaxed mood. The map also includes photos and Tweets to provide more of an insight into the actual environments that Daniel was walking through at the time of the different brain sensor readings.

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