Environmental Neuroscience and Environmental Psychology - Psychology - Oxford Bibliographies

The external environment can have a profound impact on our brains and behavior. Yet, even with such a profound impact, it is often easy to ignore just how much the environment can affect us. This is exacerbated by the fact that humans have been able to manipulate their environment so effectively to ease daily life. Even so, the environment shapes our brains and behaviors tremendously. This article will review the literature on how the environment (examined from different levels of analysis) can affect our brains and behaviors. The article draws on research across disciplines (e.g., biopsychology in nonhuman animals) and with different technologies (e.g., genomics and fMRI) to uncover just how powerfully the environment can affect our brains and behaviors. There are four main sections to this article. The first deals with the in utero environment and how it can affect the brain. The second focuses on the maternal environment and other changes in the environment during development that can affect the brain and behavior. The third section discusses epigenetic factors and how environmental factors can affect an organism’s gene expression, which will influence neural, psychological, and behavioral development. Lastly, impacts of the social and physical environment on brain and behavior are discussed. Importantly, it is not possible to review all the extant literature on how the environment can affect brain and behavior. These studies were selected on the basis of the authors’ research interests and knowledge base. Any omissions are not a sign of lack of interest, but rather the limitations in summarizing a large body of knowledge. In all, the selected set of studies shows the profound impact that the environment can have on brain and behavior.