Entropy of city street networks linked to future spatial navigation ability
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Abstract
The cultural and geographical properties of the environment have been shown to deeply influence cognition and mental health 1-6. Living near green spaces has been found to be strongly beneficial 7-11, and urban residence has been associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders 12-14-although some studies suggest that dense socioeconomic networks found in larger cities provide a buffer against depression 15. However, how the environment in which one grew up affects later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game 16 to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world. Overall, we found that people who grew up outside cities were better at navigation. More specifically, people were better at navigating in environments that were topologically similar to where they grew up. Growing up in cities with a low street network entropy (for example, Chicago) led to better results at video game levels with a regular layout, whereas growing up outside cities or in cities with a higher street network entropy (for example, Prague) led to better results at more entropic video game levels. This provides evidence of the effect of the environment on human cognition on a global scale, and highlights the importance of urban design in human cognition and brain function.
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People who grew up in 'griddy' cities had a slight advantage at navigating grid-like virtual environments in Sea Hero Quest.
“However, people who grew up in 'griddy' cities had a slight advantage at navigating grid-like virtual environments in Sea Hero Quest (Fig. 4c), suggesting that experience of gridded cities does not have a purely negative effect on navigation skill 117 .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [117]
Experience of gridded cities does not have a purely negative effect on navigation skill.
“suggesting that experience of gridded cities does not have a purely negative effect on navigation skill 117 .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [117]
Argentina and the USA have the largest gap in performance between those who grew up inside cities versus those who grew up outside cities, whereas Romania lies at the other end of the scale.
“Argentina and the USA have the largest gap in performance between those who grew up inside cites versus those who grew up outside cities, whereas Romania lies at the other end of the scale.”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [117]
There is an association between street network entropy (SNE) and the effect size for the negative impact of growing up in a city compared to non-city participants.
“Association between SNE and the effect size for the negative impact of growing up in a city compared to non-city participants, and also the identification of two clusters of countries (with high and low SNE).”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [117]
Participants who reported growing up in cities from the low-SNE countries were most impacted by environments in Sea Hero Quest with a high SNE, and marginally better at navigating gridlike environments with a low SNE.
“Participants who reported growing up in cities from the low-SNE countries were most impacted by environments in Sea Hero Quest with a high SNE, and marginally better at navigating gridlike environments with a low SNE.”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [117]
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Video gaming, but not reliance on GPS, is associated with spatial navigation performance
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Entropy and a Sub-Group of Geometric Measures of Paths Predict the Navigability of an Environment
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The format of the cognitive map depends on the structure of the environment.
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Characterizing China's road network development from a spatial entropy perspective
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Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership
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Geography education improves spatial ability: evidence from fMRI and behavioral experiments
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The role of place attachment and spatial anxiety in environmental knowledge
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Shin, N., Rodrigue, K. M., Yuan, M., & Kennedy, K. M. (2024) · Alzheimer s & Dementia Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring · doi:10.1002/dad2.12551 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Predicting real-world navigation performance from a virtual navigation task in older adults
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Research status of visuospatial dysfunction and spatial navigation
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Complexity and entropy of natural patterns
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Built environment and schizophrenia re-hospitalization risk in China: A cohort study
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Individual differences in internal models explain idiosyncrasies in scene perception
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Decoupling geographical constraints from human mobility
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Perceiving Topological Relations
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Neuroadaptive mobile geographic information displays: an emerging cartographic research frontier
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Cognitive reserve and individual differences in brain tumour patients
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Neural dissociation between computational and perceived measures of curvature
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Adaptive planning depth in human problem-solving
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Spatial Navigation in Childhood and Aging
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Self-citationEntropy of labeled versus unlabeled networks
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Less spatial exploration is associated with poorer spatial memory in midlife adults
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London taxi drivers exploit neighbourhood boundaries for hierarchical route planning
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Self-citationEvaluating Spatial Understanding of Large Language Models
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Does Culture Shape Our Spatial Ability? An Investigation Based on Eye Tracking
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Learning to live in the spatial world: Experience-expectant and experience-dependent input
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Self-citationThe Fundamentals of Environmental Neuroscience
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Virtual reality as a tool to understand spatial navigation
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Gao, H., Wang, C., Niu, R., Fang, X., Chen, J., Sun, Y., Jin, H., & Wang, D. (2025) · IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems · doi:10.1109/tnnls.2025.3569826 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Virtual reality navigation for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease
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We are wanderers: Abstract geometry reflects spatial navigation.
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Separable cognitive and motor decline tracked across adult life-span for goal-directed navigation
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Self-citationQuantifying navigation complexity in transportation networks
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Boundary effects on topological characteristics of urban road networks
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Self-citationThe affective benefits of real-world exploration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Individual differences in spatial navigation
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Transforming CCTV cameras into NO2 sensors at city scale for adaptive policymaking
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Generation of probabilistic synthetic data for serious games: A case study on cyberbullying
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Education Is Positively and Causally Linked With Spatial Navigation Ability Across the Lifespan
Coutrot, A., Kievit, R., Ritchie, S. J., Manley, E., Wiener, J. M., Hölscher, C., Dalton, R., Hornberger, M., & Spiers, H. J. (2025) · Open Mind · doi:10.1162/opmi.a.13 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citationThe impact of built and natural environments on working memory - A systematic literature review
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Determinants of individual navigation ability
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Self-citationRegional differences of large-scale spatial orientation ability in virtual environment
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- Authors
- Coutrot, A., Manley, E., Goodroe, S., Gahnstrom, C., Filomena, G., Yesiltepe, D., Dalton, R. C., Wiener, J. M., Hölscher, C., Hornberger, M., & Spiers, H. J.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- University of Münster (DE)
- Northumbria University (GB)
- Bournemouth University (GB)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Coutrot, A.
- Spiers, H. J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2022-03-30
- Volume
- 604
- Issue
- 7904
- Pages
- 104-110
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W4220700859
- Cited by
- 243
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 81 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 50 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 14.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Urban Green Space and Health
- Keywords
- urban road networks, spatial navigation, cognitive ability, urban design, topological similarity
- MeSH terms
- Built Environment, Cities, Cognition, Humans, Video Games, Entropy, Spatial Navigation
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