Entropy of city street networks linked to future spatial navigation ability

Abstract

Cultural and geographical properties of the environment have been shown to deeply influence cognition and mental health[1-6]. While living near green spaces has been found to be strongly beneficial [7-11], urban residence has been associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders [12-14] (although see [15]). However, how the environment one grew up in impacts 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 are better at navigation. More specifically, people were better at navigating in environments topologically similar to where they grew up. Growing up in cities with low Street Network Entropy (e.g. Chicago) led to better results at video game levels with a regular layout, while growing up outside cities or in cities with higher Street Network Entropy (e.g. Prague) led to better results at more entropic video game levels. This evidences the impact of the environment on human cognition on a global scale, and highlights the importance of urban design on human cognition and brain function.