The brain dynamics of architectural affordances during transition

Abstract

Action is a medium of collecting sensory information about the environment, which in turn is shaped by architectural affordances. Affordances characterize the fit between the physical structure of the body and capacities for movement and interaction with the environment, thus relying on sensorimotor processes associated with exploring the surroundings. Central to sensorimotor brain dynamics, the attentional mechanisms directing the gating function of sensory signals share neuronal resources with motor-related processes necessary to inferring the external causes of sensory signals. Such a predictive coding approach suggests that sensorimotor dynamics are sensitive to architectural affordances that support or suppress specific kinds of actions for an individual. However, how architectural affordances relate to the attentional mechanisms underlying the gating function for sensory signals remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that event-related desynchronization of alpha-band oscillations in parieto-occipital and medio-temporal regions covary with the architectural affordances. Source-level time–frequency analysis of data recorded in a motor-priming Mobile Brain/Body Imaging experiment revealed strong event-related desynchronization of the alpha band to originate from the posterior cingulate complex, the parahippocampal region as well as the occipital cortex. Our results firstly contribute to the understanding of how the brain resolves architectural affordances relevant to behaviour. Second, our results indicate that the alpha-band originating from the occipital cortex and parahippocampal region covaries with the architectural affordances before participants interact with the environment, whereas during the interaction, the posterior cingulate cortex and motor areas dynamically reflect the affordable behaviour. We conclude that the sensorimotor dynamics reflect behaviour-relevant features in the designed environment.

Differences in regional gray matter volume predict the extent to which openness influences judgments of beauty and pleasantness of interior architectural spaces

“…Importantly, the large cluster that was coincident with the PCC also overlapped with adjacent parietal regions in the PCL (BA5/6) that could be functionally involved in the observed pattern of covariation. Specifically, the PCL has been associated with motor and sensorimotor functions, 59,60 and it is possible that the evaluation of openness in interior spaces might be associated with an assessment of their degree of affordances for facilitating movement 61,62 . In combination, the association of the TP, PCC, and PCL with individual differences in beauty responsiveness suggests that processes related to affect, personally relevant semantic and episodic memory, and/or motor and sensorimotor processes could explain differences in the extent to which people's beauty evaluations are influenced by the openness of interior architectural spaces.…”

“…Finally, as noted, it is possible that as a consequence of evaluating the hedonic value of the rooms, our participants also engaged processes related to computing the behavioral affordances of openness. Thus, studies examining neural activity associated with movement planning when people were confronted with open doors have found enhanced activity in BA31 61,62 . These and other possible functional explanations must be tested in neuroimaging experiments that take care to differentiate between neural regions that process specific types of input (e.g., openness), those that store long‐term knowledge representations , and those that implement movement decisions.…”

Enacting Media. An Embodied Account of Enculturation Between Neuromediality and New Cognitive Media Theory

“…A central architectural element are entrances and doors that afford locomotive permeability. They have been, for instance, explored in EEG experiments that measure motor preparation in the perception of such apertures, which showed a highly fine-tuned sensitivity to this particular architectural element (i.e., whether a door is walk-through-able or not, see Djebbara et al, 2019Djebbara et al, , 2021. Such adjustments are part of our architectural, multisensory habit to perceive architectural affordances.…”

“…For social affordances in digital media, seeFox and McEwan (2017). For affordances in architecture, seeJelić et al (2016) andDjebbara et al (2021).Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org…”

The neuroaesthetics of architectural spaces

“…Further, thanks to recent advances in mobile EEG and fNIRS, researchers can potentially pair behavioural ratings with neural data across a wide range of settings. Mobile imaging techniques are beginning to provided novel insights about neural processing in art museums (Kontson et al 2015) and collaboration in the classroom (Dikker et al 2017) and are now being applied to architecture (Djebbara et al 2021). While these data will be inherently "messy", results gained in the field may be more ecologically relevant than those collected in the laboratory.…”