Mapping Inequalities in the Physical, Built and Social Environment in Population-Based Studies of Brain Health

Tomáš Paus; Jeff Brook; Dany Doiron

doi:10.3389/fnimg.2022.884191

Mapping Inequalities in the Physical, Built and Social Environment in Population-Based Studies of Brain Health

Front Neuroimaging. 2022 Apr 26:1:884191. doi: 10.3389/fnimg.2022.884191. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Tomáš Paus^{1

2}, Jeff Brook³, Dany Doiron⁴

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
² Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁴ Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, QC, Canada.

Abstract

This mini-tutorial describes how combining aggregate-level data about the physical, built and social environment can facilitate our understanding of factors shaping the human brain and, in turn, brain health. It provides entry-level information about methods and approaches one can use to uncover how inequalities in the local environment lead to health inequalities in general, and those in brain health in particular. This background knowledge should be helpful to those who are interested in using neuroimaging to investigate how environmental factors shape inter-individual variations in the human brain.

Keywords: MRI; brain development; built environment; epidemiology; inequality; mental health; physical environment; social environment.

Publication types

Review