Neuroscience: The ‘N’ in NOVELL
The NOVELL Redesign project combines design expertise with the latest neuroscience evidence of how the human brain engages with, and responds to, the built environment. Neuroplasticity, or brain-change, is essential for recovery after a stroke. Anyone who has spent any time in hospital, especially a rehabilitation unit, will tell you that these can be lonely, boring, unstimulating, and stressful spaces – none of which is helpful for healing and brain recovery. It’s our job to fix this.
Understanding of human/environment interaction is rapidly evolving as the science and technology improves. New knowledge is coming from emerging disciplines such as neuro-architecture and neuro-aesthetics which investigate how humans perceive and experience built spaces at a biological and psychological level (e.g., see ANFA and Arts+Mind Lab). Colour and line, dimension, softness and hardness, lightness and darkness, comfort and quiet – all of these things may affect our brain, our emotions, memory, learning, and behaviour and therefore our recovery after stroke.
Here are some existing neuroscience principles that have immediate implications for rehabilitation architecture and that we’ll be applying in the NOVELL project:
Our brain changes as we age. Children and young people’s rehabilitation experience and adult rehabilitation experience are conceptually and theoretically distinct. Rehabilitation design must consider these neuro-generational differences.
Our brain changes in response to our environment. The process of neurogenesis means that the human brain can form new axonal connections in response to positive (or negative) external stimuli, thereby facilitating or hindering recovery.
We can measure our brain’s response to the environment. Neural adaption and excitation follow different neural pathways and optimum levels of neural function can be detected with neural mapping technology.
Our brain changes in response to our emotions. Emotional experiences influence memory formation, retention and recall. Emotional responses to place influence our memory (and expectation) of place.
Our senses connect our brain to the environment. Sensory perception is a crucial design element. Multi-sensory modifications (light/sound/touch/smell) can influence the way we experience pain and loss, how we feel, behave and what we remember.
Want to know more?
Check out these articles by NOVELL team member Prof Heidi Zeeman:
Neurophilic Design: Who We Are and Where We Are
Buildings that Heal: Contributions from neuroscience in designing the built environment
