Dangers of the City

Yikes!

From TG Daily...

"The risk for anxiety disorders is 21 percent higher for people from the city, who also have a 39 percent increase for mood disorders," says co-author Jens Pruessner. "In addition, the incidence for schizophrenia is almost doubled for individuals who are born and brought up in cities."

The team looked at the brain activity of healthy volunteers from urban and rural areas. In a series of experiments, they showed that city living was associated with greater stress responses in the amygdala, an area of the brain involved with emotional regulation and mood. An urban upbringing was also found to be associated with activity in the cingulate cortex, a region involved in regulation of negative affect and stress.

"These findings suggest that different brain regions are sensitive to the experience of city living during different times across the lifespan," says Pruessner. Interestingly, it didn't seem to make much difference whether individuals lived in a concrete jungle or a city with a lot of green space. The implication is that it's population density, rather than any other factor, which causes the changes in the brain.