How the City Hurts Your Brain 439
Hugh Pickens writes "The city has always been an engine of intellectual life and the 'concentration of social interactions' is largely responsible for urban creativity and innovation. But now scientists are finding that being in an urban environment impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory and suffers from reduced self-control. 'The mind is a limited machine,' says psychologist Marc Berman. 'And we're beginning to understand the different ways that a city can exceed those limitations.' Consider everything your brain has to keep track of as you walk down a busy city street. A city is so overstuffed with stimuli that we need to redirect our attention constantly so that we aren't distracted by irrelevant things. This sort of controlled perception — we are telling the mind what to pay attention to — takes energy and effort. Natural settings don't require the same amount of cognitive effort. A study at the University of Michigan found memory performance and attention spans improved by 20 percent after people spent an hour interacting with nature. 'It's not an accident that Central Park is in the middle of Manhattan,' says Berman. 'They needed to put a park there.'"
Re:Just visit Manhattan (Score:5, Funny)
Is the damage reversible, or do New Yorkers stay like that indefinitely?
Re:Good exercise? (Score:2, Funny)
Hell, if I've got something to think about and somewhere to go (either walking or driving), I'll find myself there without being aware of actively avoiding people and/or cars.
Then again, I am Vulcan. Human's may not be capable of this.
Re:Good exercise? (Score:3, Funny)
I can. But I'm not sure what that means. Can humans do this or am I Vulcan as well? We should have a poll over this.
Re:What natural setting? (Score:5, Funny)
bush, bush, tree, bush, tiger, bush, oh wait...
Re:Just visit Manhattan (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone is constantly glancing around at everything.
Probably trying to avoid muggers and eye contact with the crazies.
Central Park (Score:5, Funny)
'It's not an accident that Central Park is in the middle of Manhattan,' says Berman.
For real? I thought they'd just forgotten to build shit there.
True! (Score:3, Funny)
Its true! Since i moved from Ironforge to the gardens of Dalaran i gained +20 int!
Anecdote about 5th Av. (Score:2, Funny)
> be it by crossing 5th avenue at the wrong moment
When I was a lot younger (and spacier), after about a year and a half of living in Manhattan, I was walking on 51st St. and suddenly a ladybug landed on my hand. I was so surprised and thrilled at that (being the opposite of a real "city boy") that I crossed 5th Av. against the light (or mostly against the light) and only a few minutes after understood what I had done.
Re:Good exercise? (Score:0, Funny)
oh my god, nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.
Re:Anecdote about 5th Av. (Score:5, Funny)
I was walking on 51st St. and suddenly a ladybug landed on my hand.
On 51st St, it might've been a gentleman bug dressed as a ladybug. Sometimes it's hard to tell.
I don't think so (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I find it stimulating (Score:5, Funny)
The truth is that most people work in office buildings that are not that busy, and they only spend a tiny fraction of their day in a busy and distracting environment.
An office environment is not distracting? Have you ever heard of e-mail, youtube or slashdot?
Re:Good exercise? (Score:1, Funny)
I can. But I'm not sure what that means. Can humans do this or am I Vulcan as well? We should have a poll over this.
Don't talk to the strange man who thinks he is one of a fictional race from a pretend spaceman tv show. He'll probably try to molest you or worse, show you his cheeto-stained XXXL Starfleet uniform.
Re:Just visit Manhattan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I find it stimulating (Score:4, Funny)
No. Certainly not the last one; it sounds like somewhere freaks would live.
Because the test subjects' brains were so bored during the *walk in the park* they jump for joy when given something to do. Ever see a hamster given a wheel for the first time?
Re:Well, no... (Score:4, Funny)
Gee, psychoanalyze much? Typical New Yorker.
Re:Good exercise? (Score:4, Funny)
Yes! Whether distractions are bad depends completely on what you are doing (or how you do it).
For instance, people who use Python need a fair bit of distraction to keep their minds occupied and thus find some kind of satisfaction while working in that highly restrictive environment. But people who program with Perl need a low distraction environment while they exercise their creative potential.
There is so much more to programming than whitespace can contain :-)
Re:Good exercise? (Score:2, Funny)
Re: Cities Murder People (Score:3, Funny)
Fortunately, some of your vital areas have been saved from too much scientific education?
Re:I find it stimulating (Score:4, Funny)
Consider this the post-modern, performance art way of proving my point.