Making a Difference

Secondary Research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzFP6xyUec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5e7hFBlePs

 social stress = social density and social isolation combined

City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans

Florian Lederbogen, Peter Kirsch, Leila Haddad, Fabian Streit, Heike Tost, Philipp Schuch, Stefan Wüst, Jens C. Pruessner, Marcella Rietschel, Michael Deuschle & Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg

More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, making the creation of a healthy urban environment a major policy priority1. Cities have both health risks and benefits1, but mental health is negatively affected: mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers2 and the incidence of schizophrenia is strongly increased in people born and raised in cities3,4,5,6. Although these findings have been widely attributed to the urban social environment2,3,7,8, the neural processes that could mediate such associations are unknown. Here we show, using functional magnetic resonance imaging in three independent experiments, that urban upbringing and city living have dissociable impacts on social evaluative stress processing in humans. Current city living was associated with increased amygdala activity, whereas urban upbringing affected the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, a key region for regulation of amygdala activity, negative affect9and stress10. These findings were regionally and behaviourally specific, as no other brain structures were affected and no urbanicity effect was seen during control experiments invoking cognitive processing without stress. Our results identify distinct neural mechanisms for an established environmental risk factor, link the urban environment for the first time to social stress processing, suggest that brain regions differ in vulnerability to this risk factor across the lifespan, and indicate that experimental interrogation of epidemiological associations is a promising strategy in social neuroscience.

By 2050, 69% of humans will live in urban areas

Today we were introduced to our topic; Tautoko & Tuakiri: Making a Difference. The aim of the brief is to design for wellbeing. We will be required to use our skills to engage in ‘social, environmental and economic issues’, and provide a solution using not only our own design practice but also the thinking of other disciplines. By engaging with others we may gain new insights, perspectives and contributions to the project. In the context of our project, Tautoko explains ‘a situation or condition and a designer’s support or advocacy towards it’. Taukiri ‘can help define the identity of the designer and where they are positioned within a society/culture.’

These ideas are revealed as values for this project to encourage the exchange between different practitioners at COCA. Collaboration and sharing of skills, knowledge and perspectives will be important not only in the creation of a successful and insightful project but also in determining how we will, as designers, position ourselves in relation to other disciplines in contexts outside of university.

My notes in the picture above allude to the theme of the brief: Everyday Wellbeing. Our projects should eventually enable people to maintain positive everyday mental wellbeing. We will design an experience that encourages strategies for better wellbeing that can be implemented into people’s lives. However, the solutions shouldn’t be obviously targeting a specific issue, but ‘overtly associated’ with providing an experience that improves mental health in a subtle and positive way.

For the journey map exercise, we had to pair up and talk to one another about our holiday. The 5 strategies for everyday wellbeing are; connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. With these in mind we used the journey map exercise to evaluate our own, and our partner's everyday well-being over the break(see notes in the picture above).