Neuroscience and Geographic Information Systems to Investigate the Impact of Global Warming on Mood Disorders and Brain Plasticity in Urban Areas

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are advanced computational systems for acquiring, storing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data, enabling comprehensive exploration of geographical relationships and patterns across diverse domains. GIS play a crucial role in analyzing the intersection of mood and brain data in a geo-environmental context. Through spatial analysis techniques, GIS allows researchers to visualize and understand the geographical distribution of mood-related phenomena and their correlation with brain activity patterns. In this chapter, we show that GIS can offer a powerful framework integrating spatial perspectives for examining the intricate interplay between mood, brain data, and global warming. This interdisciplinary approach enhances our understanding of the psychological impacts of environmental shifts, aiding in the development of targeted interventions to mitigate the mental health consequences of global warming. On the example of mood disorders, we exemplarily demonstrate how GIS can be implemented to investigate the effects of climate warming on mental health and brain plasticity. We used satellite images to calculate land surface temperature (LST) and LST changes over time in the urban context of the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. These data were compared to mental health and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) information from a population study in Lausanne. The distribution of mood disorders exhibited a discernible spatial pattern across Lausanne, indicating that they were not randomly distributed in the geographical space. Spatial clusters with significantly higher rates of mood disorders were associated with significantly higher LST. Conversely, areas with lower LST at residential locations showed significantly better mental health performance.