Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
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Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#2Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#3Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#4Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#5Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642321572/scientists-link-air...
The referenced article there explicitly does not give a mechanism:
Changes in the brain chemistry or composition are likely more plausible channels between air pollution and cognition. It is beyond the scope of this paper to test the exact mechanism, so we leave it as agenda for future research.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#6Andrew Gelman: "No, I don’t think that this study offers good evidence that installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits."
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/01/09/no-i-dont-...
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#7Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/27/642321572/scientists-link-air...
Article says
> It's not clear precisely how pollution impacts cognitive decline, though Chen suggests that pollution may have a negative effect on the brain's white matter, which could vary between men and women. As NPR has reported, "the brain's white matter coordinates communication among brain regions."
> James Hendrix, the director of Global Science Initiatives at the Alzheimer's Association, was skeptical of the claim that pollution impacts white matter. "I think that's speculation. I think we don't have a direct cause and effect that can be proven," he said.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#8Half of the reason I enjoy working from home, is that my office has horrible stagnant air. I think far better anywhere (home, coffee shops, the park) that isn't my office.
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#9Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6138768/ https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9193 https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/smog
Your first link says the mechanism is unknown right in the beginning. Third link doesn't mention mechanisms at all. Only the second link attempts some guesses. But it still concludes that "It is beyond the scope of this paper to test the exact mechanism, so we leave it as agenda for future research."
Re: Installing air filters in classrooms has large educational benefits?
#10Is there any known mechanism through which air quality affects cognitive performance? The article does not suggest or refer to any research on the subject.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6138768/ https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9193 https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/smog
The apa article seems to have the best info. This is from a study of genetically identical mice:
To find out more about the underlying cause of those behavioral changes, Nelson compared the brains of mice that had been exposed to dirty air with brains of mice that hadn't. He found a number of striking differences. For starters, mice exposed to particulate matter had increased levels of cytokines in the brain. (Cytokines are cell-signaling molecules that regulate the body's inflammatory response.) That wasn't entirely surprising, since previous studies investigating the cardiovascular effects of air pollution on mice had found widespread bodily inflammation in mice exposed to the pollution.
More surprisingly, Nelson also discovered physical changes to the nerve cells in the mouse hippocampus, a region known to play a role in spatial memory. Exposed mice had fewer spines on the tips of the neurons in this brain region. "Those [spines] form the connections to other cells," Nelson says. "So you have less dendritic complexity, and that's usually correlated with a poorer memory."
The changes are alarming and surprising, he says. "I never thought we'd actually see changes in brain structure."