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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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“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]
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“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]
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“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]
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“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]
In the citing paper
“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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Metadata
- 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
- 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
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › 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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