Developing brains and changing worlds: Macroenvironmental changes and their association with brain development
Growing evidence suggests that physical environmental features at the neighborhood level are linked to brain structure during human development. In a context of accelerated urbanization, climate change and technological transformations, assessing how environmental changes relate to brain development is critical. Most studies to date, however, used cross-sectional data only and focused on a reduced set of environmental and brain features. The present study investigates whether macroenvironmental and brain changes are associated during adolescence. We used structural equation models and regularized multivariate path analysis to identify macroenvironmental features that predict changes in whole-brain structural features in a sample of 368 individuals from the IMAGEN study (https://www.imagen-project.org/), who were assessed at 14 and 22 years of age. We observed characteristic brain developmental changes and substantial individual differences in change in 15 macroenvironmental features. Path analysis showed that changes in a handful of these variables, for instance tree cover density, presence of water bodies and air pollution, significantly predict changes in cortical thickness, structural connectivity and gray and white matter volumes over adolescence.
Authors
- Sylvane Desrivières (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9120-7060)
- Hugh P Garavan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8939-1014)
- Sarah Hohmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5175-6698)
- Jean‐Luc Martinot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0136-0388)
- Nathalie Holz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6225-9267)
- Antoine Grigis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7984-3710)
- Hervé Lemaître (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5952-076X)
- Michael N. Smolka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5398-5569)
- Simone Kühn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6823-7969)
- Frauke Nees (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7796-8234)
- Penny Anne Gowland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4900-4817)
- Eric Artiges A (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4461-7646)
- Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot
- Jürgen Gallinat
- Nilakshi Vaidya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4600-7158)
- Tobias Banaschewski
- Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos
- Luise Poustka
- Robert Whelan
- Juan F. Quinones
- Andreas Heinz
- Henrik Walter
- Gunter Schumann
- Herta Flor
- Arun L.W. Bokde
- Paul Wirsching
Institutions
- University of Vermont (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Université de Bordeaux (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- University of Mannheim (DE)
- King's College London (GB)
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- University Hospital Heidelberg (DE)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives (FR)
- Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (FR)
- Central Institute of Mental Health (DE)
- University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development (DE)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- Global Brain Health Institute (US)
- Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin (DE)
- Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik (DE)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Research
- Published
- 2026-01-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.123624
- Primary Topic
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00