[MUSIC] What do you feel when you walk into a cathedral? Light is streaming in through the stained glass, the ceiling soars above your head. Cavernous echos create a sense of vast space. It smells old. Compared to the world outside, your brain tells you that this space is sacred. It makes you feel different. It elicits different thoughts. You are a different person inside the cathedral. Now, walk into a stadium filled with 100,000 fans for a football game. The sites are brighter than outside the stadium and the sounds are much louder. The crowd roars when the goal is scored. You are caught up in the emotional moment. This is why we still go to live sporting events even though the camera angles are much, much better on TV. These experiences have an impact on your brain whether you immerse yourself in a quiet, contemplative environment or a hyperstimulated one. You are changing your thought patterns and that changes your brain. Different emotional states, different memories, different brains. Is your environment helping you to achieve your goals? Sometimes, even small changes in your environment can lead to big differences over time. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies where I work is a special place. As you approach the Salk Institute from the outside, it looks like a concrete fortress. But as you enter the central courtyard, there is a dramatic change. A broad expanse of travertine stretches out to the Pacific Ocean with towers rising along the sides anchoring the otherworldly space. The Salk Institute was designed by Louis Kahn, a famous architect working together with Jonas Salk who invented a vaccine that cured polio in the 1950s. The building is an architectural landmark. Jonas was a medical researcher but he founded an institute, whose mission was basic science. Our motto is cures begin here. Salk reinvented himself as a visionary and what is this institute to inspire the researchers working there to make important scientific breakthroughs, and we have. I am inspired. Every day when I arrived for work, the entrance opens on to the tea room, the heart of my lab. Students in my lab come from many countries and have diverse backgrounds, and they all gather around the tea table everyday at 3:30. Some of the most important scientific ideas from my lab arose from tea time discussions. The ceiling at my lab are ten feet high. Studies have shown that people think and act differently in environment with high ceilings. They think more freely and abstractly. People in a room with low ceilings are more likely to focus on the specifics. All of these factors are important for building a community of passionate and creative researchers. Now, let's walk into a hospital. They are remarkably similar in their layout in every city and almost all countries. In 2004, I attended a workshop in Woods Hole Massachusetts sponsored by the Academy of Neural Science for Architecture that explore the design of healthcare facilities. The workshop was an eye opener. Based on what we know about environments that promote health and healing, modern hospitals could not be more badly designed. Look, first, let's look at the lighting. Many studies have shown that lighting has a pervasive effect on physiology and behavior. Outdoor light promotes arousal. Dark, indoor lighting promotes inactivity. Large windows with views of nature encourage healing. Rooms with small windows overlooking parking lots are depressing. The sickest patients are sent to the intensive care unit where there are no windows, the light is kept at the same level all day long. We have a circadian clock that regulates awake and sleep cycles, which are in train by bright light. When you travel to a distant time zone, you feel disoriented for days until your circadian clock has shifted. Putting a patient into constant lighting untethers their brain, making it clueless about the time of day. Sound is also an important part of a healing environment. Alarms can go up anytime of the day or night in a hospital to alert the staff of an emergency. This also alarms the brains of the sick people who have enough to worry about without a menacing sound. Good nutrition is essential to building a strong body, healthy brain. I have eaten some of the worst food ever in hospitals. Unhealthy choices, poorly prepared, go figure. Finally and above all, it is stressful to live in an unpredictable environment. The privacy of hospital patients can be invaded any time of the day or night for an examination, a teaching moment, a blood draw or even more invasive procedures. If you are worried about your health before arriving at a hospital, the environment there will amplify your worries. Look around you and notice your environment. Is it conducive to your goals? Is there a way that it can be changed? Sometimes, just changing your walking route can brighten your surroundings. [MUSIC]