NLT's Chief Scientist and colleagues — including several other world-class researchers — completed the long and arduous peer-review process on their project "Global urbanicity is associated with brain and behaviour in young people," recently published in Nature Human Behaviour. The research, which began during postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), involved several research universities around the world to perform a first-of-its-kind, continental-scale analysis of the link between mental health, neuropsychology, and urbanization.
"We show that a remote-sensing satellite measure of urbanicity (UrbanSat) is correlated with brain volume, cortical surface area, and brain network connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex and cerebellum," said NLT's Chief Scientist. The study extends the application of remote-sensing satellite data and provides a method to characterize and monitor spatial and temporal patterns of risk for mental disorders.
The authors concluded that UrbanSat provides a unique opportunity to identify the cumulative effects and susceptibility periods of urbanicity on brain and behaviour, and could enable assessments of the correlations between urbanicity, mental illness, and resilience globally. The full paper can be read here.
About New Light Technologies
New Light Technologies (NLT) is a Washington, DC-based firm with 25+ years of experience delivering:
- Geospatial systems and enterprise GIS
- Cloud-native data platforms
- AI/ML and advanced analytics
- DevSecOps and cybersecurity solutions
NLT supports federal, state, and international organizations in operationalizing data for mission impact.