Thesis - Urbanism: A Trend in Hyper-Stimulation and Its Effects on the Human Brain

Urbanization:
A Trend in Hyper Stimulation and Its Effects on the Human Brain

by

Nelson
Rozo

A
Thesis
Submitted
in
Partial
Fulfillment
of
the
Bachelor
of
Arts
Requirement
in

Interdisciplinary
Studies
(UGIS),
The
University
of
California,
Berkeley

Dec
12th,
2014

Advisor:
Rakesh
Bhandari

1
“‘Madness’ has been reported in every society on record, no matter how ancient or how
primitive….”1
What differs from modern day is the fact that we are now able to quantify and
affix causation through empirical methods of analysis.
In 2008, for the first time in history there were more people living in cities than in rural
areas.2
This expansion is projected to increase and new growth is expected to be heavily
concentrated in Africa and Asia. Along with this growing trend in urbanization, there is an
urgency to focus on how these city structures are influencing and shaping the emotional health of
their citizens. A recent study in Germany has been highlighting that specific social stressors
contribute to the impairment of mental performance in urban participants, an effect that increases
with the amount of time an individual is exposed to urban centers in regards to being born and
raised. Thereby, stimulating the brain in a manner that creates a causal mechanism for
Schizophrenia as well as other emotional disorders.3
By 2050 it is projected that 70% of the worlds population will reside in urban areas.4
Primarily, the focus of my paper connects the following elements of city life and how they
pertain to the emotional health of their citizens: social network size, personal space violation,
everyday action and planning, auditory and visual stimuli, lack of natural setting, and

1
Noll, Richard. The encyclopedia of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Infobase Publishing, 2009
2
"UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund | Urbanization." UNFPA - United Nations
Population Fund | Urbanization. Accessed March 12, 2013.
http://www.unfpa.org/pds/urbanization.htm.
3
Abbott, Alison. "City living marks the brain." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 429-429.

4
UNFPA, same as note above

2
architecture. I will more broadly characterize these elements of city life into their most basic
categories for the purposes of this paper, which include: social and visual stimuli. Although both
physical and social stimuli are covered in the scope of this paper, there are other factors that need
to be taken into account as well – among which culture would play a part in the social stimuli
mentioned. I will choose to focus the scope of my topic on the neurobiological effects of city life
on the human brain and will address current research in this area, while leaving this discussion
and research open to future endeavors that choose to highlight the neurobiological effects of
culture on the individual mind. I will highlight, where important, how even the speculation of
cultural differences might be at play in factors of mental health.
Another important connection to also note is that there are other physical factors
interlaced with the activation of certain areas of the brain. Outlining the cognitive processes
within each section of this paper, I aim to clarify how each stimulus presents a particular effect.
However, these processes are complex and mental health is also affected by such factors as food,
alcohol, drugs (elicit and prescribed), as well exercise and air quality. As such, it is necessary to
take these factors into account when considering and mapping out the complexity of urban
stimuli; and, although it will not be possible for me to go into detail with these stimuli and their
effects on the brain, I will make note of them when the research within the scope of my topic
deems it necessary and is directly connected in relevance.
City living carries with it a complex array of stimuli and, as such, there is no current case
or argument in which to attribute a causal mechanism, although correlational data has begun to

3
surface from studies in Denmark.5
Through this project I intend to draw focus on both the
physical stimuli, via visual sensory inputs, and social stimuli involved in everyday city life;
highlighting each stimulus’s respective activation and use of the brain, while also considering
how all of these activations may affect the brain while working simultaneously and in tandem.
While previous research6 7
has focused on the city’s social stimuli as a contributing factor to the
degradation of the mental health, I wish to see an expansion of this research area to include
findings from studies that focus on the physical stimuli of city dwellers as well.
Through my research, special care will be taken to avoid causal assumptions such as
Frumkin’s assertion that the contributing factors for mental disorders of lower socio-economic
status citizens were due to “socio-genic” problems, while he also averred that the higher classes
had the tendency to suffer mental disorders due to “psycho-genic” factors.8
There is a much
richer landscape of factors involved in these mental health disorders and interplay between these
factors that, in general, makes it difficult to determine whether one factor is more weighted than
the others. There are many overlapping factors that do affect all city-dwellers. Although lower

5
Griffiths, Kathleen M., and Helen Christensen. "Internet‐based mental health programs:
A powerful tool in the rural medical kit." Australian Journal of Rural Health 15, no. 2 (2007):
81-87.
6
Lederbogen, Florian, Leila Haddad, and Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg. "Urban social
stress–Risk factor for mental disorders. The case of schizophrenia. "Environmental Pollution 183
(2013): 2-6.

7
Lederbogen, Florian, Peter Kirsch, Leila Haddad, Fabian Streit, Heike Tost, Philipp
Schuch, Stefan Wüst et al. "City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress
processing in humans." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 498-501.

8
Dunham, H. Warren. "Social structures and mental disorders: Competing hypotheses of
explanation." The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly (1961): 259-311.

4
socio-economic classes endure various hardships that the higher classes are immune to, a more
holistic model of mental health is necessary in order to incorporate more recent research, which
finds that “participants’ age, education, income, marital and family status, as well as aspects of
their health, mood, personality and the amount of social support they had” did not seem to
notably contribute to these urban effects on the personality known as “urbanicity.”910
Methods
Since stress can be subjective, various mental disorders and conditions directly related to
chronic stress will be discussed. However, there are challenges due to the following: (1) cultural
differences in classifying mental health disorders and utilizing available services; (2) rural areas
have less access to resources while urban areas have greater access to these resources.1112
In
order to address the first issue mentioned, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World
Psychiatric Association (WPA) are in collaboration to standardize classification and procedures
within mental and behavioral healthcare. There are 195 countries worldwide that are a part of

9
Kennedy, Daniel P., and Ralph Adolphs. "Social neuroscience: Stress and the
city." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 452-453.
10
11
Vijayakumar, Lakshmi, Sujit John, Jane Pirkis, and Harvey Whiteford. "Suicide in
developing countries (2): risk factors." Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide
Prevention 26, no. 3 (2005): 112.

12
Rehkopf, David H., and Stephen L. Buka. "The association between suicide and the
socio-economic characteristics of geographical areas: a systematic review."Psychological
medicine 36, no. 02 (2006): 145-157.

5
WHO.13
For the second challenge, possible opportunities for rural areas such as online mental
healthcare resources will be mentioned later in the Implementation section. Although there are
the challenges of limited access to resources for rural citizens, I will discuss the implications of
this when comparing data to urban citizens.14
Another way to view the factors of city-living is this: within this analysis of social and
physiological stimuli, there is a framework borrowed from The Techno-Human Condition by
Allenby and Sarewitz with a three-tiered approach of technology.15
I will briefly explain each of
these three levels alongside a brief example of their application within my paper. The first level
is the most basic and includes the technology itself solving a particular problem; this contains
such instances as lights, cellphones, computers, cars, trains, buildings, fMRI scanners, etc.
Within the second level are various categories of social and cultural methods of organization that
surround the level I technologies, which could include the manufacturers of these technologies
along with city planning, architecture, research institutions, public policy, and various software
and technology companies. Level III technologies are much greater in complexity and are much
more unpredictable in that they incorporate various level I and II categories that shape factors
within both the social and physical environment – this would include topics beyond the scope of
my paper such as climate and environmental changes, job opportunities, and a multitude of

13
Note, for an extensive list of the countries that have membership, visit
http://www.who.int/countries/en/

14
Griffiths, Kathleen M., and Helen Christensen. "Internet‐based mental health
programs: A powerful tool in the rural medical kit." Australian Journal of Rural Health 15, no. 2
(2007): 81-87.

15
Allenby, Braden R., and Daniel Sarewitz. The techno-human condition. MIT Press,
2011, 31-85.

6
systems that are all somehow connected to the various stimuli and technologies that I present in
my paper. By breaking down the topics associated with my paper into these three tiers, I will
highlight the importance of these technologies mostly as they pertain to the mental health of
urban citizens with a primary focus of their impact as level I technologies. I am interested in
predominantly the neurobiological and psychological affects of urban living.
One might say that the social stimuli that I discuss are really created by the effects of
mainly level II technologies. For example, factories as a level I technology solve the production
problem of speed and quality control, but then also create job opportunities by creating a
centralized location for the operation of factory machines. This creation of jobs then becomes
organized under the social system of a workplace, a level II technology. Then, this social system
creates the magnetic effect of drawing more people looking for jobs into the city and, as a
secondary effect, social crowding begins to occur. Consequently, social crowding creates its own
unique effect that is reliant upon both the technologies and social structures that gave rise to it. I
will argue to maintain its affect as a level I technology because this social crowding creates
another unique effect within the individual brains. As a level I technology, I will be able to
quantify and measure the results of social crowding by such research methods as fMRI and EEG,
which will put it within the similar realm of quantitative measurability as light & green space
(visual stimuli) in regards to experimental controls. Undoubtedly, social stimuli will remain more
difficult and subjective than both visual. However, if there are trends in the data, which some
studies have shown, then this will prove useful in determining a human threshold for social stress

7
factors.16
Once there are more studies showing how the workplace and everyday city living
affect mental health, then public policy can follow suit as well other solutions made to ensure
that human environments are made mentally sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable.
Social Stress
There are many factors associated with social stress because any socially threatening
situation could be perceived as a social stressor. From the disapproval of your boss at work or the
mal-intentioned Facebook post to more immediate dangers such as the menacing look of a
stranger before they mug you. Social stressors take on many forms and none of them should be
negated. The problems that they cause are unique to each individual and the type of situation that
occurs. Whether social stress occurs at the home, workplace, school, or another space, they
impact the mental health of those involved.
Although social networking does contribute to a sense of emotional stability, well-being,
and self-worth, along with upward job mobility, there are also risks associated with
overstimulation. As the amygdala is linked to various forms of social cognition, it is also
impaired during stress among individuals who were born and raised in an urban setting.17
The
various constitutes of social cognition include: group membership via linguistic categories
(words that signify “in-group” and “out-group” characteristics, which activate a part of the brain

16

17
Pedersen, Carsten Bøcker, and Preben Bo Mortensen. "Evidence of a dose-response
relationship between urbanicity during upbringing and schizophrenia risk." Archives of General
Psychiatry 58, no. 11 (2001): 1039-1046.

8
which is also closely associated to the “personal self”);18
facial expression processing of
emotionally charged images;1920
as well as social network size and awareness of personal space
violation.21
So, in this case the linkage between social networking cues, at least linguistically, are
tied to the perception of self with each association that we make with others as part of the group
we belong to, as discussed by Morrison. However, the participants in this study had no mental
health history, so it would be helpful to also study the linguistic associations and brain processes
of individuals at risk for developing a mental disorder. For studies in the future, the similarities
and/or differences between at-risk and not-at-risk individuals might provide insight into the
individual perceptions surrounding social-network size.
In my interview with Laura Mason from the UC Berkeley department of Clinical
Psychology, she brought up specific aspects of social networking while addressing certain issues
associated with cyberbullying and also how constant access to social media creates a platform for
overexposure to stimuli – affecting both mood and mental health in general. 22
These factors that
Mason brought up should definitely be studied in light of the preexisting social stressors in cities
so that mental health stability can be further analyzed. So, while exposure to social networking

18
Morrison, Samantha, Jean Decety, and Pascal Molenberghs. "The neuroscience of
group membership." Neuropsychologia 50, no. 8 (2012): 2114-2120.

19
Hugenberg, Kurt. "Social categorization and the perception of facial affect: target race
moderates the response latency advantage for happy faces. “Emotion 5, no. 3 (2005): 267.

20
Thomas, Kathleen M., Wayne C. Drevets, Paul J. Whalen, Clayton H. Eccard, Ronald
E. Dahl, Neal D. Ryan, and B. J. Casey. "Amygdala response to facial expressions in children
and adults." Biological psychiatry 49, no. 4 (2001): 309-316.

21
city." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 452-453.

22
Mason, Laura. Interviewed by Nelson Rozo, November 18, 2014.

9
does provide its own distinctive problem as a social stressor, more studies need to be done in
order to determine the exact implications of cyber social stress, in particular with those who are
younger and still have developing brains. The younger generations will undoubtedly experience
a specific interweaving of online and in-person social interactions, however, these online social
stressors are in no way isolated to city-dwellers, but instead to those who have these digital
communication technologies at hand. I do not mean to digress from my original scope of
stressors that affect city-dwellers, but this form of social stress is valid to introduce, as it is
applicable as another subset of social stress that urban inhabitants face. Now, focus on the
aspects of city-living will return to those that are unique to its inhabitants such as social
crowding while looking at how other factors that are not inherently urban, such as social
networking and media multitasking, may compound the issue.
Media multitasking is linked to socio-emotional issues can cause grey matter to shrink in
the brain. A recent study from the University of Sussex reports that, “Our findings suggest a
possible structural correlate for the observed decreased cognitive control performance and socio-
emotional regulation in heavy media-multitaskers. While the cross-sectional nature of our study
does not allow us to specify the direction of causality, our results brought to light novel
associations between individual media multitasking behaviors and ACC structure differences”
(there are also issues with lighted displays disrupting the natural circadian rhythm, a deeper
analysis will be provided with under the Visual Stimuli section of this paper).23
This is an

23
Loh, Kep Kee, and Ryota Kanai. "Higher Media Multi-Tasking Activity Is Associated
with Smaller Gray-Matter Density in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex."PloS one 9, no. 9 (2014):
e106698.

10
important study to look at because if media multitasking can have an impact on brain structure,
then further research emphasis needs to be placed also on other various forms of multitasking.
There are studies that show that certain types of multitasking affect performance during a
task. Whether it is at a computer on while driving a car, people that multitask perform more
poorly than their non-multitasking counterparts. One thing that I would like to have addressed in
this thesis and that I would like to incorporate for future research is to survey a broad-range
demographic to see how cities implement multitasking in comparison to rural and even suburban
areas. I want more subjective data from the participants so that I can possibly uncover pain
points in the workplace and in daily life that cause the most distraction by multitasking – this
research may open up various avenues to help improve this problem, and ultimately may help to
create a more sane and balanced version of city living. By increasing awareness of both
productivity and the mental wellness that is associated with a more linear approach to completing
tasks rather than multitasking, I believe there can be a shift in the values of corporations and
other data-driven workplaces to adopt methods that are more sustainable to their employees’
mental health.
Facial processing is an activity that allows an individual to identify happy and angry
faces faster than those that are neutral and external influences do shift the speed of processing
such as when an unpleasant odor is used to offset the natural mood or expectations of the

11
individual participant.2425
Stimulation in the amygdala occurs during this facial processing along
with other important processes:
Intriguingly, a similar pattern of reduced amygdala–pACC coupling has previously been
associated with genetic risk for psychiatric disorders, and the amygdala has recently
been linked both to social-network size and to the sense of personal-space violation.
Taken together, the findings suggest that the cingulate-amygdala circuit is one on which
genetic and environmental risks for mental illness may converge.26
As many of the social cognition tasks take place in the amygdala, the social stimuli of
urban living becomes a primary concern of evaluative purposes for finding possible links to the
development of schizophrenia. This also forms another necessary endeavor: to factor in the
continuous physical stimuli of city life into the equation. Taking these research findings to
further question and investigate how external environment may also stimulate the cingulate-
amygdala circuit.
So, since demographics were not a primary factor in the contribution toward
schizophrenia, further explanations need to be considered. Those that speak a different language
or have a unique heritage compared to the city dwellers around them might seem to have greater

24
Thomas, Kathleen M., Wayne C. Drevets, Paul J. Whalen, Clayton H. Eccard, Ronald
E. Dahl, Neal D. Ryan, and B. J. Casey. "Amygdala response to facial expressions in children
and adults." Biological psychiatry 49, no. 4 (2001): 309-316.
25
Leppänen, Jukka M., and Jari K. Hietanen. "Affect and face perception: odors
modulate the recognition advantage of happy faces." Emotion 3, no. 4 (2003): 315.

26
city." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 452-453.

12
difficulty in finding niches for social networks. On one hand, there needs to be an explanation for
why immigrants of Lederbogen’s study do not seem to stand out as more vulnerable in the
statistics while looking at the detrimental effects of urbanicity.27
One explanation is found in
Kuo and Tsai who actually suggest that immigrants often times have more resilience in social
networking than they would otherwise be assumed to have in a new host country.28
On the other
hand, if recent evidence also suggests that immigration poses a risk factor for both first and
second generations, then more extensive research needs to be performed in order to determine
factors contributing to the discrepancies between Lederbogen’s and Bourque’s research.2930
I
believe further studies need to visit how particular groups and minorities process social stress
factors and what their sense of belonging within social networks is, following in the fashion of
Morrison’s study of “in-group” and “out-group” study, but focused on particular demographics.31
As well, particular focus should be placed on the amygdala activation in immigrants (moving to
urban or rural areas) and whether facing strangers and being socially disconnected may in any

27

28
Kuo, Wen H., and Yung-Mei Tsai. "Social networking, hardiness and immigrant's
mental health." Journal of health and social behavior (1986): 133-149.

29
Lederbogen, same as note above.

30
Bourque, F., E. Van der Ven, and A. Malla. "A meta-analysis of the risk for psychotic
disorders among first-and second-generation immigrants."Psychological medicine 41, no. 05
(2011): 897-910.

31
Morrison, Samantha, Jean Decety, and Pascal Molenberghs. "The neuroscience of
group membership." Neuropsychologia 50, no. 8 (2012): 2114-2120.

13
way be similar to the processes that city dwellers face by interacting with strangers on a daily
basis.
There are of course various factors that play into their overall success in transplanting
these immigrants’ social lives, primarily being that they are subject to the social constraints of
their host country. One question to explore in this situation is whether the socially maladapted
immigrants experience the same type of anxiety as other individuals in high-stress social
situations. Barriers such as language, economic status, and other factors may contribute to a
unique set of stressors depending on the individual, which is why interdisciplinary research is
necessary.
As such, the social sciences may provide insight such as that “immigrants may suffer
more mental illness because of social isolation — but they are validated when neuroscientists
demonstrate a robust biological mechanism.”32
This validation is important to assign a greater
urgency to the matter of urbanicity’s effect on mental health and to analyze any correlations that
could be offered as a result. If specific stressors are shown to exist, solutions can be made
depending on the source of the unique social stressor of immigrants whereas a speaker of the
native language and culture may experience a completely different type of social stress that
consequently requires a different solution.
As I stated previously, there are such factors of urban living that I will not cover within
the scope of this paper; these might include high pollution, crime, and other important factors. It
is important to note that these factors may play some role in the mental health of those who

32
Abbott, Alison. "City living marks the brain." Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 429-429.

14
reside in an area with these characteristics. Currently, there is ongoing research dealing with
social capital. Although the subjective experiences of the individual neighborhoods are
undoubtedly important to consider, a more comprehensive analysis will only connect them as
they pertain directly to the general outlines of physical and social stimuli. What I do bring into
focus though is the importance of a complete perspective that takes into account the culture,
lifestyle, age, and other factors in their importance to providing insight into the subjective
elements that might contribute to higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas. Future studies
will undoubtedly need collaboration between social scientists and neuroscientists in order to
quantify and account for an individual’s measure of subjectivity.
How social stressors are processed differently from physical stressors is a clear
delineation that needs to be made. Despite this distinction, both types of stressors can be utilized
as a learning aid if they are part of a synchronized cycle of moderate stress in consolidating
information, however, memory retrieval is impaired if the stressor occurs shortly beforehand.
Also important to note is that these single stressors aid in learning, whereas, repetitive or
consistent and uncontrollable stress factors can actually result in long-term effects, although rare,
of brain deterioration as experienced with major depression or aging, given an individual is
predisposed.33
In order to determine which parts of the brain are used similarly and/or
differently between these two types of stressors previously mentioned I will discuss in the Visual
Stimuli sections how these stressors might interact and create interactions that need more
consideration.

33
Joëls, Marian, Zhenwei Pu, Olof Wiegert, Melly S. Oitzl, and Harm J. Krugers.
"Learning under stress: how does it work?." Trends in cognitive sciences 10, no. 4 (2006): 152-
158.

15
Then to consider more subjective matters such as the social networks of various
demographics, it is imperative to understand whether they surround themselves with a circle that
will contribute to or detract from upward mobility opportunities and how they see their own
social capital as contributing or detracting from these groups. And, also whether online social
networks contribute to increased satisfaction in life and opportunities or merely an increase in
emotional instability. I personally find it interesting to observe any physiological resemblances
of online hubs of social interaction to their non-virtual counterparts. It is crucial to understand
what is present and what is subtracted, what is augmented and what is diminished. As humans
are drawn to activities that create a surge of dopamine, it should come as no surprise how they
are drawn to social media. Many hybrid virtual/non-virtual social network opportunities exist
such as Couchsurfing, Zimride, Meetup, Tindr, Grindr, and a myriad of other services that make
it possible for people of similar interests to interact – most of these services function as a
verification or quality control process. From ridesharing to dating, these hybrid forms of
interaction create a unique niche because their main purpose is to drive face-to-face interactions,
unlike their counterparts such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, among others. Ultimately, to
see if these online social networks alleviate any sense of lack-of-agency or control in their lives,
thereby contributing to a greater state of mental health. And then how these hybrid forms relate
to increased satisfaction of life. These would be important facets of online social media, if they
prove to have a significant effect. It is also central to consider how these online social media
platforms interact with preexisting face-to-face interactions and social stressors; I believe further
research needs to be performed to determine how these online interactions exacerbate or
ameliorate the everyday social stressors that already occur in the workplace, home, school, and
other areas of social interaction.

16
Visual Stimuli in Light of Previous Knowledge
Now to move on to other factors that may prove to have significance in the everyday
lives of city dwellers: visual stimuli. I have chosen to represent these stimuli by the amount of
green space and artificial lighting, two factors that are processed by the visual system – two
factors of key importance for very distinct reasons. While the visual stimuli I am discussing also
have environmental concerns as well, I will not be focusing on their importance. In the Moving
Forward section I will further discuss how environmental solutions can also be overlaid with
mental health solutions to create a more comprehensive approach to sustainability. Green space
and lighting have two individual physiological responses. While green space assists in
facilitating greater focus34
and recuperation from stress35
, lighting carries many different
responses by being deeply tied to the circadian rhythm.36
They both have unique properties in
contributing to overall mental health and balance. There are various structures associated with
vision, but one of these that is of special interest to me for future research is that of the amygdala
(which I previously mentioned is related to many emotional-related tasks).37
I wish to further

34
Pilotti, Maura, Eric Klein, Devon Golem, Eric Piepenbrink, and Katie Kaplan. "Is
Viewing a Nature Video After Work Restorative? Effects on Blood Pressure, Task Performance,
and Long-Term Memory." Environment and Behavior(2014): 0013916514533187.
35
Pretty, Jules, Jo Peacock, Martin Sellens, and Murray Griffin. "The mental and
physical health outcomes of green exercise." International journal of environmental health
research 15, no. 5 (2005): 319-337. Exercising while in a green setting perceived as pleasant has
beneficial effects on both systolic and mean arterial blood pressure.
36
Gazzaniga, Michael S., and Richard B. Ivry. "Structure and Function of the Nervous
System." In Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind, 46. Fourth Edition, International
Student ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013

37
Gazzaniga, same as note above.

17
expand on this interest to see if there are any connections between certain visual stimuli and
social stress.
To start with, green space is considered to be beneficial to mental health according to two
theories: biophilia3839
and attention restoration theory (ART)40
. While biophilia simply means
“the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes,” 41
ART focuses on the evolutionary
mechanisms that could contribute to the therapeutic effects of nature.
One solution for maximizing daylight would be using biomimicry in the built
environment. What this involves is using designs and systems that are inspired from nature and
biology and then implementing them into the engineering design process. In the case of urban
planning, this could have much to do with maximizing natural light for the city dwellers. In
Verheij’s analysis of the current research surrounding the subject:
However, strong scientific evidence has only been found for the positive effects of nature
on recovery from stress and attention fatigue. Exposure to nature has proved to have a
positive effect on mood, for example, as well as concentration, self-discipline, and
physiological stress. These effects were found in the field as well as under laboratory
conditions and the effect occurs even after brief exposure to a picture of a nature area

38
Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia. Harvard University Press, 1984.
39
Kahn, Peter H., Peter H. Kahn Jr, and Patricia H. Hasbach, eds.Ecopsychology:
Science, totems, and the technological species. MIT Press, 2012. 196
40
Thielen, Amy, and Karen R. Diller. "Through the Lens of Attention Restoration
Theory: The Pursuit of Learning in Gardens throughout History." Undergraduate Research
Journal for the Human Sciences 11, no. 1 (2012).
41
Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia. Harvard University Press, 1984, 1.

18
(Health Council of the Netherlands and Dutch Advisory Council for Research on Spatial
Planning, 2004).
Different underlying theories are used to explain why green space exerts a beneficial
effect on health. The most important theories concerning the influence of nature on
recovery from stress and attention fatigue are Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis (Wilson,
1984), Ulrich’s psycho-evolutionary model (Ulrich, 1993) and Kaplan and Kaplan’s
Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989). All these theories are
based on the idea that the restorative effects of nature have an innate, evolutionary basis.
The so-called biophilia hypothesis states that human preferences towards things in nature,
while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological
evolution.It was introduced by Wilson (Wilson, 1984)….42
These forms of restorative nature that are being referred to are connected deeply to our DNA – I
suppose man is not always as fast at evolving himself as he hopes to. Moving on, recall the
media multitasking study that I previously referred, it elicits many of the exact opposite
sociobehavioral responses as being in nature. It will be interesting to see if social media can itself
evolve into a form that is more appropriate for human use.
The concept of social stress perception is closely tied with various mental health topics,
including psychosis disorders. There are animal models to understand pharmaceuticals for the
treatment of these psychotic disorders; however, it is difficult to model the socio-behavioral

42
Verheij, R. A., J. Maas, and P. P. Groenewegen. Urban—rural health differences and
the availability of green space. European Urban and Regional Studies 15, no. 4 (2008): 307-
316.

19
aspects of humans. Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are a mixture of genetic and
environmental factors. These genetic factors are triggered by environmental factors for the
development of such psychotic disorders. Research has primarily focused on fMRI and genetic
methods of understanding schizophrenia. Although there are many factors that contribute to
social stress perception (e.g. cultural values, biological differences, and urban vs. rural
upbringing). Specifically, in many areas of my paper I am addressing schizophrenia, primarily
because it surfaces so often in research. Focusing in order to see how cities can be designed to be
better-suited manner for the human mind and the effects of this environment are what I
ultimately aim to further understand.
Although there are particular psychological affects that cities are commonly known for
(e.g. stress, loneliness, and more), I took an approach to analyze how the city stimuli itself is
affecting the mind. Drawing from previous research about schizophrenia, I aim to design a more
comprehensive experiment that would allow further progress to analyze the severity of the
combined stressors in an environment. This research could be used to then predict what
combination of stressors in the built environment is suitable or unsuitable for the general citizen
or worker. I would like to see possible applications to help benefit the mental health of the most
vulnerable populations.
Using neural correlates for future, I wish to better understand how all of these separate
experiments could possibly have overlapping data or, perhaps, there might also be contradictions
across various experiments and thereby causing various discrepancies in furthering the
knowledge surrounding schizophrenia. Ultimately, I would like to unify and create a more
cohesive approach to modeling data that would take many factors of stress into account. The
experiments I would like to be involved in will expand upon the research of Lederbogen that I

20
already mentioned.43
I am testing how social stress perception is impacted among both urban and
rural test groups. Because the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex has many processes related to
auditory attention, as well as and social and imagery inference, I expect for some decrease in
stress threshold for social stressors when auditory or visual stimuli is presented simultaneously44
.
Until then, I move on to discuss how cities some of the functions of cities in light of the research
mentioned in previous sections.
Condensing Space Its Policy Implications
So, since space is one factor that confines and concentrates people within a specific area,
crucial to bringing an understanding about the spatial organization of a city is to include an
analysis of how the size of buildings and layout of architecture reinforces crowding of population
and how this is taken into consideration when city planners are drawing up their blueprints.
Knowing how much of this crowding is individually subjective or whether there us a common
tipping point across cultures and demographics is necessary to implement these findings into
public policy and building standards. Perhaps it might not even be possible for officials to
design a city that is helps to combat personal space violation – maybe this issue is much more
deeply a psychological issue apart from the built environment and the stressors that are contained
within and because of it. The effects of personal space violation, both expressed internally and
externally by the individual, and whether they trigger depression, rage, or other types of

43
Schuch, Stefan Wüst et al. City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress
processing in humans. Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 498-501.

44
Drevets, Wayne C., Jonathan Savitz, and Michael Trimble. The subgenual anterior
cingulate cortex in mood disorders. CNS spectrums 13, no. 8 (2008): 663.

21
responses are undoubtedly aggregated and exacerbated the more people are concentrated within
concentrated spaces like cities. Invariably, there will be both similarities and differences across
cultures in regards to the perception of personal space violation.
Another aspect that should be included in this analysis are other factors that contribute to
everyday stressors, which includes public and personal transportation and the stress perception of
people that use these methods of travel. Studies that indicate any change in stress levels among
those individuals which have an integrated city transportation system compared to those who do
not would prove useful. Monitoring how the stress response is affected by sitting in traffic and
whether this creates an unsustainable amount of aggravation to the human body is another
important factor for both individuals and city officials. Fear of safety or germs while using the
public transportation system is another fringe topic among my analysis of mental health in the
urban setting, but it is yet another layer to be considered in the efficacy of the city’s structures.
Perhaps it is merely the concentration of so many social and environmental factors that makes it
inevitable for city life to be stressful without complete remedy. These are all issues that
Transportation Economic Land Uses Systems (TELUS)45
, Activity-Based Modeling Research
Initiatives (AMPO)46
, and Goal Oriented Zoning (GOZ)47
would consider. TELUS are

45
TELUS - Transportation Economic Land Use Systems - AMPO. AMPO. Accessed
March 1, 2013. http://www.ampo.org/telus-transportation-economic-land-use-systems/.
46
AMPO Activity-Based Modeling Research Initiatives - AMPO. AMPO. Accessed
March 1, 2013. http://www.ampo.org/ampo-activity-based-modeling-research-initiatives/.
Activity Based Modeling creates a more holistic overview of how humans use space whereas
trip-based models look at single activities independently.
47
Resources: Land Use and Transportation Modeling Tools - Goal Oriented Zoning
(GOZ), New Jersey. [Archived]. Accessed March 12, 2013.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tcsp/goznj.html.

22
computerized tools used to facilitate planning, while Goal Oriented Zoning focuses on creating
solutions that take “land use data,” “infrastructure systems,” and “natural systems” to compute
and maximize urban spaces in order that they may be utilized more efficiently and with less
intrusion into both the inhabitants and the environment. 4849
Determining if there are also
neurological benefits of Activity Based Models (ABMs) compared to trip-based models would
be useful as an addition to benefitting the environment.
Sustainability of the human mind is also another consideration in city planning. An
optimal amount of space is designated to remain a natural setting in cities paired alongside office
buildings, marketplaces, and residences re-gentrified or built from the ground up choosing to
incorporate nature aesthetics into their design. It is difficult to determine whether these shifts be
significant enough to allow for individuals to have some stimuli relief. In light of all of the
evidence presented, it is also important to consider whether some responsibility is placed upon
the individual to find some type of prayer, meditation, or activity to help their mind be soothed
from overstimulation. I do believe that the city should help facilitate this independent use of
restorative measures through its design.
With technology in mind, the means that apps and city-sponsored wayfinding help to
consolidate and streamline the network of planning and maneuvering around the city is necessary
to lessen confusion and stress. However, whether these apps are tested to ensure that they reduce

48
TELUS - Transportation Economic Land Use Systems - AMPO. AMPO. Accessed
March 1, 2013. http://www.ampo.org/telus-transportation-economic-land-use-systems/.
49
Resources: Land Use and Transportation Modeling Tools - Goal Oriented Zoning
(GOZ), New Jersey. [Archived]. Accessed March 12, 2013.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tcsp/goznj.html.

23
the cortisol levels among a wide demographic range would be the ultimate test. On the other
hand, does the physical structuring of single-use zoning contribute to stress through difficulty in
trip-planning and contribution to unnecessary traffic. Perhaps I am being too technical and
offering many considerations, but I believe this discussion is exactly what the city needs to have
in order to ultimately benefit its citizens.
Organizations such as United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) are focused on helping to
contribute to policymaking and urban planning so that a wide range of demographic needs is
met.50
How these would play out in the biomedical industry, pharmaceuticals, mental
institutions, and for the welfare of society, as a whole, is a key question to consider. As well,
whether or not the benefits of city living will be eclipsed by a global surge in mental disorders
created by our very craze to urbanize. These speculations are appropriate to consider so that
further studies can be performed and any thoroughly substantial results integrated into various
city planning, architecture, social services and support infrastructures. Also, these possible issues
will undoubtedly create an unprecedented need for new ventures and organizations to help fill
any gaps at the social and governmental level. Types of costs can include direct health care costs
such as prescriptions, outpatient care and professional fees, hospital inpatient stays and services,
and long-term care, while direct non-health care costs include law enforcement, research and

50
UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund | Urbanization. UNFPA - United Nations

24
training, and homeless shelters. Of course there are other indirect costs such as unemployment or
reduced work productivity.51
Suicide and the City
Moving onward to another difficult question is to ask whether schizophrenia occurs less
in rural areas or whether it could be true that those suffering this disorder have more
opportunities to commit suicide in rural areas before they can get the necessary social support or
health care opportunities52
. Research in China showed a higher rate of suicide in schizophrenic
residents from urban areas (12.77 per 100,000) rather than rural areas (7.10 per 100,000).
Although, in total there were a greater number of suicides from schizophrenia in rural areas due
to the greater number of rural suicides overall – from that data53
I calculated rural suicides to be
46.5% greater than urban suicides. If this turned out to be true, then the importance of this entire
thesis would be diminished. People in rural areas are more likely to attempt suicide with a
firearm and “because people who use a firearm are more likely to die (than others who choose a
less lethal method), more people in rural areas die from suicide.”54
40% of people who have

51
McEvoy, Joseph P. The costs of schizophrenia. The Journal of clinical psychiatry 68
(2006): 4-7.
52
Caldwell, Tanya M., Anthony F. Jorm, and Keith BG Dear. Suicide and mental health
in rural, remote and metropolitan areas in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia 181, no. 7
(2004): S10.
53
Phillips, Michael R., Gonghuan Yang, Shuran Li, and Yue Li. Suicide and the unique
prevalence pattern of schizophrenia in mainland China: a retrospective observational study. The
Lancet 364, no. 9439 (2004): 1062-1068.
54
Community Counseling Services, Inc. Community Counseling Services, Inc.
Accessed December 12, 2014.
http://www.hsccs.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=docid=13737cn=9.

25
schizophrenia attempt suicide at least once and 10% of people with schizophrenia die by
suicide.55
In California, San Francisco county has a rate of 10.5 suicide deaths per 100,000while
Los Angeles county has a rate of 7.5 per 100,000. 5657
Meanwhile, California’s Superior Region
contains the most rural areas of California. This Superior Region had a range of 17.51-20.0
suicide deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In New York City, the suicide death rate is 6 per 100,000,
while the rural portions of New York state have rates ranging from 10.97-25.84.58
Singapore has
a suicide death rate that mirrors that of the U.S. average, with a rate of 10.1.59
Further analysis is
necessary to further understand how many suffering from schizophrenia commit suicide. Perhaps
it was an oversight of mine, but I was unable to locate the very specific dataset of Phillips’ study
for either the U.S. or Singapore. So, for future projects I would like to explore these topics for

55
Caruso, Kevin. Schizophrenia and Suicide. Suicide.org - Suicide Prevention,
Awareness, and Support. Accessed December 12, 2014. http://www.suicide.org/schizophrenia-
and-suicide.html.

56
Our Focus. San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership (SFHIP). Accessed
December 12, 2014. http://www.sfhip.org/modules.php?op=modloadname=NS-
Indicatorfile=mapiid=11150232.
57
Reducing the Burden of Suicide in California. Suicide Rates in California: Trends
and Implications for Prevention and Early Intervention Programs. Accessed December 12, 2014.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9737.html.
58
Rojas-Burke, Joe. Exploring the Geography of Violent Death. Association of Health
Care Journalists. July 29, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2014.
http://healthjournalism.org/blog/2014/07/exploring-the-geography-of-violent-death/.

59
International Suicide Statistics. Suicide.org - Suicide Awareness, Prevention, and
Support. Accessed December 12, 2014. http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-
statistics.html.

26
further analysis and data processing so that comparable figures may be formulated for
comparison to Phillips’ study from China.
As researchers study the mysteries of city-life, a comprehensive mapping of attributes
that involves factoring in the suicides of schizophrenic citizens is also necessary. If determined
to play a major factor in offsetting the currently known material surrounding the rural vs.
suburban, then a more comprehensive model would need to also account for this in calculating
the statistics of schizophrenic rates in terms of a correlation.
This could challenge the current research and prove that cities don’t actually inherently
contribute to greater rates of schizophrenic development, but that they instead prolong the lives
of those suffering from schizophrenia. Such a shift would need to focus then not on reforming
the city structure’s effects on the human mind, but instead onto the rural area’s insufficiencies
along with helping rural areas be equipped with the same resources which help city-dwellers
maintain their existence.
Similar to studying CPU usage that helps the programmer to know which parts of her
code are taking the most resources, understanding which parts of the brain that all of these daily
elements and activities that city life requires could help facilitate a model of the brain for an
emotionally at-risk person—this would provide useful insight for clinicians, architects, city
planners, public policymakers, and others who would be interested in finding the most enriching
ways to care for these citizens. Greater consideration should be implemented for mapping out
existing cities and/or growing city centers in order to take this research and make it applicable.
Also, it is important to look at such issues as to which emotional disorders show up the most in

27
city dwellers and whether there are there enough studies to display some relationship to elements
of city life.
My Trip to Singapore
Singapore represents a unique case of urbanization. Upon arriving in Singapore, it is
noticeably that it “has devoted approximately half of its ground area to nature and greenspace, an
impressive achievement in what is a very dense city.”60
Due to the country’s complete
urbanization and a current population density of 7,615 per km2
(Los Angeles, 3,205 per km2
; San
Franscisco, 6,899 per km2
; New York, 10,724 per km2
), 6162
the social and political factors of this
city-state have grown to embrace urbanism and find unique ways to maximize the benefits of
their space while mitigating the challenges. One method that they attempt to do this is through
hackathons centered on creating innovative solutions for challenges.
Singapore’s urban setting was just a textbook case study to me prior to arriving, but upon
experiencing the city-state’s urban living there are many comparisons to the United States that
harshly contrast and make all of the public policy details and statistics come to life. With more
than half of the world’s population residing in urban settings for the first time in the world’s
history, Singapore presents a unique case, a microcosm, with which an observer can study how

60
Beatley, Timothy. Biophilic cities: integrating nature into urban design and planning.
Island Press, 2011, 46.
61
Latest Data. Department of Statistics Singapore. Accessed December 12, 2014.
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/latest_data.html#14.
62
United States Census Bureau. Los Angeles (city) QuickFacts from the US Census
Bureau. Accessed December 12, 2014. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/. 2013 estimate
was calculated using a population base from April 1, 2010.

28
the people and public policies are affected by the 100 percent urbanization of the city-state.
Successes and failures can be examined to model rapidly growing cities around the world in a
more sustainable manner, both socially and environmentally. With a growing urban population
around the world, the emotional health and well-being of citizens is an interesting and important
issue to study and take preventative safety measures, accordingly.
One unique aspect of Singapore is that there are absolutely no rural or suburban areas.
There is no rural or suburban setting with which to compare and analyze the effects that the
urban areas of Singapore have on its citizens’ emotional state, which brings in an interesting
situation to study how their rates of schizophrenia differ from other large cities of a comparable
size and density. During my time there I wondered if researchers in Singapore had considered the
amount of activation within the amygdala in city-dwellers, such as in Lederbogen’s research.63
Everything seemed so well designed and coordinated that I wouldn’t put it past them as seeing
the importance for an urban area, such as Singapore, to consider within future building plans and
public policies. Because in order to focus on growing a healthy city, the functions of the
amygdala are an important consideration as it includes signaling “negative affect and
environmental threat” and “has been strongly implicated in anxiety disorders, depression, and
other behaviors that are increased in cities, such as violence.” 64
Singapore would be an
interesting case to study because right before I got there, despite a growing in population from
2011 to 2012, there has actually been a decrease in crime, according to the Annual Crime Brief

63
Schuch, Stefan Wüst et al. City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress
processing in humans. Nature 474, no. 7352 (2011): 498-501.

64
Lederbogen, same as note above.

29
2012.6566
While there, I planned to be participating in UP Singapore: 'Smart Cities' Hackathon in
order to gain greater insight for this thesis. However, it was cancelled and rescheduled for a date
when I was already back in the U.S. I knew it was an interesting opportunity, as I would have
been able to work aside many diverse professionals including: computer programmers,
researchers, and architects, just to name a few. In particular, that event is one that I hope to go
back to, with the knowledge I have gained while writing this thesis. That I am looking forward
to, as I am interested in how the diverse elements of city planning converge into a tangible
reality. My major came in useful while I was there in order to understanding the Singaporean
culture. Focusing on Perception: the Mind and its Environment, provided me many unique
experiences to study what would be relevant to the operations of society.
To explain the hackathon better, it was planned to have three different approaches for
participants to focus on: transportation, governance, and smart buildings. For me, the governance
option was of interest because it was likely include approaches and studies from a vast array of
sources. Governance is like the glue that holds all of the urban parts together. Because Singapore
is such a unique urban setting as a city-state, it provides me many opportunities to look at how
integrated the various elements of city-living have become here. In order to operate smoothly
there in such a small space, it is obvious that the tightly knitted structure has become a necessity
of Singapore, and successful trademark of this island’s personality. Singapore is such an

65
IndexMundi - Country Facts. Index Mundi. Accessed August 9, 2013.
http://www.indexmundi.com/.

66
Singapore Police Force. Singapore Police Force. Accessed August 9, 2013.
http://www.spf.gov.sg/.

30
interesting setting to discover how the mobilization and interconnectedness of resources is
brought about. I am used to living in such a vast expanse of territory in the United States, where
there is no such mobilization or interconnectedness. Sure, I suppose each city has its own
structure to approach meeting the needs of its people, but I have noticed a stark contrast of the
turn-around time that it takes the U.S. as compared to Singapore’s efficient system of
implementing policies. While I was there, people pointed out how Singapore is not a true
democracy, but at the same time, there is no denying how efficient this country is in looking after
the safety of its people. The bureaucratic nature of the United States has a certain efficiency, but
time is not one of them, usually. Well thought out plans are always important in order to be a
valid and efficient use of time and resources, but even the most well thought out plans still take
extra time to be implemented because of the long approval process. I am greatly appreciative
though of the efforts that are placed to look after me as a citizen.
When I return, I hope to build on the connections that I have made within the Global
Green Growth Institute that is working on building plans in India. One good aspect of Singapore
is that everything is local, making data collection a streamlined endeavor. Prior to arriving in
Singapore, I had few leads into where I could do my research and now I have many more. Going
back to Singapore, I could continue building the relationships that I formed last time I was there.
Interviewing mental health professionals and others who are associated with the sector could
provide me with some insight into the trends and personalities of Singaporeans in regards to their
mental and emotional health. I had originally planned to do this within my initial visit, but I
believe I can return better informed and with a more knowledgeable objective. With this insight,
I could more accurately discern information that comes my way through published statistics,
working to better formulate and strengthen my own ideas.

31
Singapore’s projected growth to 6.9 million by 2030 presents an opportunity that I would
personally like to use as an area of research for the effects of urbanization and the policies
implemented to benefit the well-being of its citizens. I would then like to use these findings and
apply them to build smarter cities in the U.S. Currently the U.S. is experiencing a growth rate
that is expected to approach one percent. One good part of this slowdown in growth is that the
State of California will have more time to plan out cities and the infrastructures that support
them. Although a city-state such as Singapore is able to pool together resources for a rapidly
growing urban population, an economy such as the one of the State of California cannot afford to
effectively allocate resources to grow cities as smartly as Singapore is theoretically capable of.
Singapore reminds me of what could be one of the various California urban centers in fast-
forward. This could be beneficial because Singapore could provide me with key insights years
before they could be studied in California. Growing California smartly and implementing many
different infrastructures is something that I hope to study more in the future and be a part of in
the implementation process. I would like to see cities in the U.S., and the world, grow in a more
sustainable manner so that they look out for the complete well-being of their inhabitants, which
includes more than their pocketbooks. Mental and emotional health is something I previously
discussed and I am concerned what the ramifications could be if California does not take the
right measures to build smarter cities in the future.
However, New York is another great example to examine for population growth. From
2010 to 2012, New York City is estimated to have grown 2 percent and there has been an
estimated 2.4 percent growth in Brooklyn.67
Singapore’s population increased by .82 percent

67
Welcome to NYC.gov | City of New York. Welcome to NYC.gov | City of New
York. Accessed August 11, 2013. http://www.nyc.gov/.

32
from 2010 to 2011, but then from 2011 to 2012 this number grew by an additional 1.99 percent.
68
That type of growth within one year is nearly the same as the percentage of two years of
growth within New York City. With this type of comparison, it is no wonder that there is great
preparation to grow the city-state in a smart way.
With some extra research and more day-to-day experience in the city-state the next time
around, I may not have a native understanding of what it takes to be Singaporean, but I know I
will leave with one extra thing: greater insight. All of the experience, research, and other tools
that I will continue to gain will come as an invaluable resource in studying urbanization as part
of an international perspective with a comparison to the United States. Growing a smarter city or
city-state will become closer to a reality for me.
Moving Forward
Perhaps as the research in this field evolves, specific tests can be administered to city
dwellers to help mental health professionals provide expert advice and public policymakers
allocate adequate resources that would help maintain optimal mental health conditions of it
citizens as a whole. Once there are specific components of everyday city living that can be
extracted as being higher risk, then action can be taken to implement the safeguards and
resources to aid at-risk individuals.
Solutions for social stress would seemingly be the most difficult to mitigate as they are
deeply connected to many factors that include cultural expectations that are tied to the 40-hr.

68

33
workweek, efficiency of having condensed living and working spaces in cities, and the basic
need to compete within the workforce and earn a living. As city living increases, so will the
competition and limited resources for those who wish to live apart from this urban sprawl.
Social support systems that extend the benefits of family support network could also help
build resilience in city-dwellers. This is a more difficult solution when it does not entail
biological or socio-cultural family ties because it leaves the active choice of finding a supportive
community up to the individual. Constraints such as time, convenience, location, and
responsibilities may make it less likely for individuals to be part of a community that helps to
build the resilience of their mental health. Although there are a growing number of avenues that
encourage individuals to connect to others through church, shared interests, etc. And an
increasing number of apps and online social network platforms are now taking on hybrid forms
that are built upon the primary foundation to encourage face-to-face interaction. However, this
still leaves the individual in charge of taking the first step in building a strong social support
system. Ultimately, both the individual and the planner have separate responsibilities. What
differs between the two is that the planners have in their hands the tools that will last for years.
Individuals should not have their mental health shaped in negative ways for years to come -
creating solutions for the physical stressors of the urban environment could be simple in theory,
but because they are tied to economic, cultural, and administrative factors, they are compounded
in complexity. Ultimately we should not bring our own mental demise due to a lack of
knowledge; or, even worse would be to do so unknowingly to another human.

34
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