IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jchals/v12y2021i2p28-d674864.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Suboptimal Visual Environments Negatively Affect Children’s Cognitive Development?

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandros A. Lavdas

    (Eurac Research, Institute for Biomedicine, Affiliated Institute of the University of Lübeck, Via Galvani 31, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
    The Human Architecture & Planning Institute, Inc., 43 Bradford St., Concord, MA 01742, USA)

  • Nikos A. Salingaros

    (Departments of Mathematics and Architecture, The University of Texas, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA)

Abstract

There are indications that children born during the period of COVID-19 lockdown have cognitive development issues, without having been affected by the virus. We discuss here the idea that environmental deprivation—and, especially, the lack of appropriate visual stimulation—might be one source of these defects. This thought is in line with previous findings in children brought up in orphanages with poor environmental stimulation, hypothesizing that the minimalist architectural style prevailing for the last several decades is among the potential contributing factors. The process of eliminating organized complexity characteristic of organic forms may prove to be detrimental for humanity’s future, providing suboptimal environmental stimulation and opportunities for interaction during the critical stages of brain development.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandros A. Lavdas & Nikos A. Salingaros, 2021. "Can Suboptimal Visual Environments Negatively Affect Children’s Cognitive Development?," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:12:y:2021:i:2:p:28-:d:674864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/12/2/28/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/12/2/28/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerd Kempermann & H. Georg Kuhn & Fred H. Gage, 1997. "More hippocampal neurons in adult mice living in an enriched environment," Nature, Nature, vol. 386(6624), pages 493-495, April.
    2. J. Pretty & J. Peacock & R. Hine & M. Sellens & N. South & M. Griffin, 2007. "Green exercise in the UK countryside: Effects on health and psychological well-being, and implications for policy and planning," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 211-231.
    3. Julian Schrittwieser & Ioannis Antonoglou & Thomas Hubert & Karen Simonyan & Laurent Sifre & Simon Schmitt & Arthur Guez & Edward Lockhart & Demis Hassabis & Thore Graepel & Timothy Lillicrap & David , 2020. "Mastering Atari, Go, chess and shogi by planning with a learned model," Nature, Nature, vol. 588(7839), pages 604-609, December.
    4. Irina Voineagu & Xinchen Wang & Patrick Johnston & Jennifer K. Lowe & Yuan Tian & Steve Horvath & Jonathan Mill & Rita M. Cantor & Benjamin J. Blencowe & Daniel H. Geschwind, 2011. "Transcriptomic analysis of autistic brain reveals convergent molecular pathology," Nature, Nature, vol. 474(7351), pages 380-384, June.
    5. Marco Aresta & Nikos A. Salingaros, 2021. "The Importance of Domestic Space in the Times of COVID-19," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-9, October.
    6. Kelly E. Robles & Nicole A. Liaw & Richard P. Taylor & Dare A. Baldwin & Margaret E. Sereno, 2020. "A shared fractal aesthetic across development," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexandros A. Lavdas & Nikos A. Salingaros, 2022. "Architectural Beauty: Developing a Measurable and Objective Scale," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-32, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johannes Machiel Dreyer & Noor Azlin Yahya & Nik Azyyati Abd Kadir, 2019. "Visitor’s perceptions of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) as an urban open space for environmental learning: results of a qualitative study," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1933-1945, August.
    2. Jiang, Wenhao & Stickley, Andrew & Ueda, Michiko, 2021. "Green space and suicide mortality in Japan: An ecological study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    3. Huang, Ruchen & He, Hongwen & Gao, Miaojue, 2023. "Training-efficient and cost-optimal energy management for fuel cell hybrid electric bus based on a novel distributed deep reinforcement learning framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    4. Gokhale, Gargya & Claessens, Bert & Develder, Chris, 2022. "Physics informed neural networks for control oriented thermal modeling of buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    5. Alexandros A. Lavdas & Nikos A. Salingaros, 2022. "Architectural Beauty: Developing a Measurable and Objective Scale," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-32, October.
    6. Somajita Paul & Harini Nagendra, 2017. "Factors Influencing Perceptions and Use of Urban Nature: Surveys of Park Visitors in Delhi," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-23, April.
    7. Dennis, Matthew & James, Philip, 2017. "Ecosystem services of collectively managed urban gardens: Exploring factors affecting synergies and trade-offs at the site level," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(PA), pages 17-26.
    8. Boute, Robert N. & Gijsbrechts, Joren & van Jaarsveld, Willem & Vanvuchelen, Nathalie, 2022. "Deep reinforcement learning for inventory control: A roadmap," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 401-412.
    9. Siqi Lai & Brian Deal, 2022. "Parks, Green Space, and Happiness: A Spatially Specific Sentiment Analysis Using Microblogs in Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Glenn N Saxe & Alexander Statnikov & David Fenyo & Jiwen Ren & Zhiguo Li & Meera Prasad & Dennis Wall & Nora Bergman & Ernestine C Briggs & Constantin Aliferis, 2016. "A Complex Systems Approach to Causal Discovery in Psychiatry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Mehran, Javaneh & Olya, Hossein GT., 2020. "Canal boat tourism: Application of complexity theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    12. Elizabeth A. Richards & Stephanie Woodcox, 2021. "Barriers and Motivators to Physical Activity Prior to Starting a Community-Based Walking Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-11, October.
    13. Rishi Rajalingham & Aída Piccato & Mehrdad Jazayeri, 2022. "Recurrent neural networks with explicit representation of dynamic latent variables can mimic behavioral patterns in a physical inference task," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Liz O’Brien, 2018. "Engaging with and Shaping Nature: A Nature-Based Intervention for Those with Mental Health and Behavioural Problems at the Westonbirt Arboretum in England," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Kenny, Daniel C. & Costanza, Robert & Dowsley, Tom & Jackson, Nichelle & Josol, Jairus & Kubiszewski, Ida & Narulla, Harkiran & Sese, Saioa & Sutanto, Anna & Thompson, Jonathan, 2019. "Australia's Genuine Progress Indicator Revisited (1962–2013)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 1-10.
    16. Benjamin A Samuels & E David Leonardo & Alex Dranovsky & Amanda Williams & Erik Wong & Addie May I Nesbitt & Richard D McCurdy & Rene Hen & Mark Alter, 2014. "Global State Measures of the Dentate Gyrus Gene Expression System Predict Antidepressant-Sensitive Behaviors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, January.
    17. Wen-Chung Liu & Chih-Wei Wu & Pi-Lien Hung & Julie Y. H. Chan & You-Lin Tain & Mu-Hui Fu & Lee-Wei Chen & Chih-Kuang Liang & Chun-Ying Hung & Hong-Ren Yu & I-Chun Chen & Kay L.H. Wu, 2020. "Environmental Stimulation Counteracts the Suppressive Effects of Maternal High-Fructose Diet on Cell Proliferation and Neuronal Differentiation in the Dentate Gyrus of Adult Female Offspring via Histo," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-15, June.
    18. Woodley of Menie, Michael A. & Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Mateo & Sarraf, Matthew A., 2022. "Signs of a Flynn effect in rodents? Secular differentiation of the manifold of general cognitive ability in laboratory mice (Mus musculus) and Norwegian rats (Rattus norvegicus) over a century—Results," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    19. Jia Tao & Meng Yang & Jing Wu, 2022. "Coupling Coordination Evaluation of Lakefront Landscape Spatial Quality and Public Sentiment," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-29, June.
    20. Elizabeth P.D. Koselka & Lucy C. Weidner & Arseniy Minasov & Marc G. Berman & William R. Leonard & Marianne V. Santoso & Junia N. de Brito & Zachary C. Pope & Mark A. Pereira & Teresa H. Horton, 2019. "Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-18, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:12:y:2021:i:2:p:28-:d:674864. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.