FYI,

Might be of applicable to space architecture as well.

"Get Lost ... and Get Better Architecture
- Testing subjects in a virtual building could lead to improved
design"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28160899

: Getting test subjects lost in a virtual building could reveal a
: lot about how to construct more people-friendly hospitals,
: schools and other spaces, according to a unique collaboration by
: a group of California neurologists and architects.

: The merging of neuroscience, architecture, psychology and
: virtual reality is allowing researchers to track the brain
: signals of study participants as they navigate through a
: simulated building within a high-tech room called the
: StarCAVE.

: "Our goal is to measure the human response to architectural
: features in a way that we've been unable to measure before,"
: said Eve Edelstein, the project's intermediary and senior vice
: president of research and design for Ontario, Calif.-based
: HMC Architects.

: The project should provide a more realistic understanding of
: how people experience real-world spaces — before a single
: brick is ever laid, said Edelstein, a trained
: neurophysiologist and a visiting scholar at the University of
: California at San Diego.

: The inclusion of electroencephalography (EEG) measurements
: will allow researchers to look at how brain signals change
: when people know where they are versus when they're utterly
: lost.

: Beyond the cost advantages of determining before construction
: begins whether a proposed layout is hopelessly confusing, the
: science could say plenty about how people navigate through,
: interact with, and form "cognitive maps" of physical spaces and
: their virtual stand-ins.

: For a pilot study testing the feasibility of such an approach,
: Edelstein joined collaborators at the university's Swartz Center
: for Computational Neuroscience and at the California Institute for
: Telecommunications and Information Technology, abbreviated Calit2.
: The first order of business: designing a virtual replica of
: Calit2's campus headquarters and projecting it within StarCAVE, a
: five-sided chamber the size of a small bedroom. Within the room's
: slightly inward-tilting space, stereoscopic images displayed on
: 15 large wall panels and two floor screens immerse viewers wearing
: polarized glasses in a virtual environment.

: The researchers also outfitted study participants with a swim
: cap-like hat connected to 256 dangling EEG electrodes to measure
: brain activity. A tracking device on the cap pinpointed the
: position of each volunteer, while a set of cameras captured head
: movements to follow their gazes.

: "It gives us an opportunity to look at an interesting brain
: response and ask what the subject is looking at," Edelstein said.

: Alternatively, researchers can detect when an architectural feature
: is perceived and how it is being analyzed by the observer's brain.

: Neuroscience, she said, traditionally taught that humans could not
: grow new nerve cells through adulthood. But more recent research
: suggests that the adult brain is still malleable, spurring
: researchers like her to ask how architecture can influence the
: formation of new nerve cells in areas such as the brain's memory
: center.

: From a practical standpoint, Edelstein said, more scientifically
: grounded data could be critical in addressing priorities in a
: hospital, like the goal of dramatically reducing patient injuries,
: medical errors and infection rates cited by the Institute for
: Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign.

: Most medical centers and healthcare facilities focus on signs to
: help people find their way, she said. Other public spaces,
: including hospitals, sometimes use colored stripes on the floors as
: navigational aids.

: Studies suggest that ineffective visual cues can cost a hospital
: hundreds of thousands of dollars annually as staff members take
: time from their jobs to redirect lost patients. Even more
: ominously, Edelstein said, "the cost of getting lost in a
: healthcare setting can be life-threatening." Someone with an
: infectious disease could wander into a hospital area that should be
: a clean environment, for example, or a desperately ill patient may
: be unable to find the appropriate caregiver in time.

: Getting lost and getting a cue

: For her group's proof-of-principle study, the Calit2 space took the
: place of a hospital, with its virtual replica featuring the
: building's lobby, exterior courtyards and some rooms and corridors.
: In the lobby, the researchers added a few details, including a
: colored door, projected shadows, and a version of an outdoor teddy
: bear sculpture made of eight massive granite boulders. The intent
: was to make the lobby as photorealistic as possible, Edelstein
: said. "And so it's rich with visual cues that could assist a person
: in navigation."

: In contrast, the researchers successively removed visual cues in
: the building's south corridor. Study volunteers were then given
: navigational tasks and remote controls to help them get through the
: virtual building, and the scientific team pored over the brain
: responses as the participants found their way.

: "The first thing that was very fascinating to us occurred before
: the analysis of the brain wave response," Edelstein said. "It was
: an observation of the increasingly subtle cues that people used."

: The angle of incoming sunlight, the researchers discovered, was a
: major cue for many participants.

: "That's what humans and animals have been using for millennia and
: we actually remove that in most architecture," Edelstein said. "And
: that was one of the first things that people told us they were
: using."

: With that cue removed in the virtual corridor, people began looking
: for cues as fine as the carpet pattern.

: Although the team is still analyzing the results, Edelstein said
: the experiment supported the concept that scientists could
: synchronously record the brainwaves of individuals moving within a
: real-time virtual reality environment and correlate their brain
: activity and travel patterns in that virtual world. A larger-scale
: study, she hopes, will expand on results and delve into the
: behavior of navigating people.

: The rich complexity of a healthcare environment, with the
: contrasting needs for specialists and patients, young and old, sick
: and well, may be the best place to begin sorting out what cues the
: brain recognizes and which it seems to ignore.

: But Edelstein says the same questions could be addressed in
: educational environments or commercial spaces within a city.

: "It's about looking at the human response beneath the level of
: clutter," she said. "If we can answer questions for healthcare
: settings, I argue that we are answering questions for all spaces
: that serve the breadth of needs."

: Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta who
: studies how neuronal firing patterns affect decision-making,
: praised the study as "a perfect use of neuroscience to peer into
: someone's brain while they do something important."

: Berns, who has followed a similar thread with his new book,
: "Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently,"
: said the relative mobility of EEG technology could lend itself to
: poring over the brain waves of people in existing buildings as
: well.

: "I think virtual reality is a helpful starting point for design,"
: he said, adding, "I'm an advocate of getting a person into a
: physical space."

: A before-and-after test could measure the success of a hallway
: designed to be navigation-friendly, for example.

: "If this worked, potentially an even more beneficial use would be
: in urban planning," he said. "Getting lost in a building is one
: thing, but getting lost in a city is another."

: Beyond navigation, Berns said he could imagine the technique being
: used to record responses to a space intended to be inspiring or
: surprising — and perhaps to prevent the design from going
; overboard.

: "I think it's a bit of a fine line between inspiring because it
: affords surprises in the environment," he said, "and one that's
: completely disorienting."

Mark Reiff