The potential of neuroarchitecture and 4E-Cognition: From microbial dynamics to active environments and back via scalable experimental designs (commentary on Wang et al., 2024)

Wang et al.'s (2024) article is relevant due to several reasons. The obvious is previous work's replication and expansion (Djebbara et al., 2019, 2021) by exploring how different forms of movement (walking/keyboard press) and environments (2D/3D) affect affordance perception. Replication and expansion of experimental effects using diverse populations and contexts is highly relevant to the still fledgling fields of mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) and neuroarchitecture; it should be facilitated and encouraged. Furthermore, their study implements a scalable experimental design (SED; Parada, 2018) across multiple articles (Djebbara et al., 2019, 2021; Wang et al., 2024), which is particularly relevant for applied neuroscience.

In addition to providing insights into how natural, built, digital, and symbolic (NaBDS) environments impact cognition from the perspective of 4E-Cognition, 1 this commentary also seeks to bridge the gap between MoBI and the microbiome of the built environment (MoBE), which is a relevant aspect of 4E-Cognition (Palacios-García et al., 2022). By furthering the integration of these two frameworks (Palacios-García et al., 2022; Palacios-García & Parada, 2021), we aim to propose actionable steps that merge the physiological and microbial aspects of human–environment interactions. This integration emphasizes the need for evidence-based design features that promote both cognitive and microbial health in NaBDS environments.

Even though we promote the 3E-Cognition 2 principles for applied neuroscience (e.g. neuroarchitecture; Parada et al., 2024), here we will nevertheless contextualize Wang et al.'s findings within the broader perspective offered by 4E-Cognition (Figure 1). By discussing how MoBI and MoBE can converge, we present a holistic approach to understanding and enhancing human–environment interactions. This sets the stage for the subsequent sections, where each 4E principle will guide our exploration of the implications and potential applications of Djebbara, Gramann, and more recently, Wang's research.

The target article provides evidence about the neurobehavioral dynamics of the perception of architectural affordances and the power of experimental replication and expansion by exploring how different forms of movement and environments affect affordance perception. Furthermore, we have argued that by integrating 4E principles, future research can deepen our understanding of the complex interactions between brain, body, conspecifics, other species and environment. Incorporating advanced technologies, such as MoBI, real-time feedback and MoBE, while addressing ethical considerations, will drive the field of neuroarchitecture forward, ultimately leading to the design of more supportive and adaptive environments.

Francisco J. Parada conceptualized and wrote the initial manuscript. Alejandra Rossi discussed the concepts and arguments, edited and wrote the final version of the manuscript. Francisco J. Parada drew eight independent figures using Dall-E (powered by OpenAI's language model, GPT-3.5; http://openai.com) and proceeded to design Figure 1 using Pixlr photo editor (https://pixlr.com/editor/). The authors acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (powered by OpenAI's language model, GPT-3.5; http://openai.com) for improving the grammatical and language accuracy of the submitted manuscript. Selected paragraphs were submitted to ChatGPT with the prompt ‘Consider the following text [‘TEXT’]. Shorten it without losing information, do any modifications necessary to improve grammatical clarity and readability’. The results were copied into the manuscript body and edited/adjusted to fit the authors' writing style. Sometimes, ChatGPT would not make relevant changes and these were discarded.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

No ethical approval was needed for developing the present work.