We have known for decades that indoor air in schools somehow affects students’ ability to learn. We are now seeing just how important IAQ is to healthy brain functioning.
We all know that our moods and thinking are affected by the physical world outside of our heads. Clearly this is part of our essential make-up as human beings. Less obvious is how sensations and information are exchanged between the environment and our brains, and why people in the exact same setting often react so differently. The answer to this question is complicated because human responses are determined by past as well as present stimuli. Nevertheless, as managers of the indoor environment, it is critical to understand which parameters improve or harm our desire and ability to learn new information, respond to physical threats, feel empathy toward others, and carry out the myriad of other tasks our brain is capable of doing.