Indoor environmental quality and the brain: A systematic review of physiological and neural evidence

What the study found

Visual and thermal conditions showed the most consistent relationships with neural and physiological signals across the reviewed evidence.

Limitations

Small and heterogeneous primary-study samples; measurement protocols remain inconsistent.

Neurodesign interpretation

This review marks a shift from asking whether occupants like a room to asking what the room is doing to the body while they occupy it.

Possible design implications

Pair subjective comfort surveys with CNS and autonomic measures when testing design interventions.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as a 2026 state-of-the-field bridge between IEQ and neurophysiology.

Study design

Systematic review plus bibliometric mapping

Population

Human participants in 32 empirical studies

Setting

Laboratory and built environments

Field

Neuroarchitecture, building science

Mechanism

Neural and autonomic response to environmental exposure

Spatial variable

Visual conditions, thermal conditions, air, acoustics

Keywords

IEQ, EEG, HRV, physiology, neural, thermal, visual