Believe it or not, but buildings around town can cause you headaches! Arnold J Wilkins, professor of psychology at the University of Essex, told CNN how urban landscapes affect our brains.
Over thousands of years, the human brain evolved by effectively processing scenes of the natural world. But the urban "jungle" presents a challenge to the brain because of the repeated patterns it contains.
Urban scenes disrupt the order of nature: they tend to exhibit repetitive patterns, due to the common use of the same design features (such as windows, stairs, railing). Such regular patterns rarely state the nature.
Because these repeated patterns of urban architecture disrupt the order of nature, it is difficult for the brain to process them. Since they are not easy to process, they are also less convenient to look at. Therefore, even surfaces or electric scales can cause headaches or epileptic seizures.
To better study the case, simple computer models were built to measure nerve cell activity as we see images of nature and images of urban architecture. The models were built by professors from the University of Essex, the University of Lincoln and the University of St. Andrews.
After studying the case, the professors were able to measure brain cell activity. According to them, when viewed in urban landscapes, nerve cell activity increased. In other words, such images take longer for the brain to process.
The research also concluded that in the last 100 years, the design of buildings has become less and less comfortable to look at.
Another way to study the impact urban buildings have on the brain is to use oxygen. By observing infrared light, the researchers concluded that when people look at nature-avoiding images, the use of oxygen in the brain increases. As long as headaches tend to be caused by excessive use of oxygen, this explains why some designs give us headaches.
Persons suffering from migraines are more susceptible to repeated patterns of buildings. Many people with migraine headaches find it impossible to work in the office.
