Reducing Stress – How Does Nature Nurture the Brain?



While being close to nature is regarded to be excellent for the brain and mental health, living in a city is a well-known risk factor for acquiring mental problems. According to research, people who live in rural areas experience less amygdala activation under stressful situations than people who live in cities. This finding points to a new benefit of nature.

According to Sonja Sudimac, a predoctoral fellow in the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience and the study's lead author, "but so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be disentangled, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions."

In order to establish a causal relationship, the researchers from the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track the brain activity of 63 healthy volunteers before and after either a one-hour walk through Grunewald forest or a busy Berlin shopping street. The results of the study demonstrated that amygdala activity decreased following a stroll in nature, proving that being in nature had a beneficial effect on brain areas connected to stress.

"The findings confirm the favorable relationship between nature and brain health that was previously believed to exist, but this is the first study to establish a causal relationship. According to Simone Kühn, director of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, "Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions stayed consistent and did not exhibit increases, which argues against a frequently held assumption that urban exposure produces increased stress.

The authors show that spending time in nature has a beneficial effect on the parts of the brain that process stress, and that this effect is already noticeable after a one-hour stroll. This increases our understanding of how our physical environment affects our mental and brain health. Going for a walk in nature may help prevent mental health difficulties from emerging and may assist to lessen the negative consequences of living in a city. Even a brief exposure to nature may reduce amygdala activity.                                                                                                  
The findings are consistent with a prior study (2017, Scientific Reports), which found that city inhabitants who lived near forests had an amygdala structure that was physiologically healthier and, presumably, could handle stress better. The significance of urban planning plans to increase the availability of green spaces in cities in order to improve residents' mental health and well-being is once again supported by this new study.                                                                                  
The researchers are currently embarking on a study exploring how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban areas impacts stress in mothers and their babies in order to evaluate the positive effects of nature on various demographics and age groups.

Findings from associations between geographic characteristics and brain anatomy in people in quest of characteristics that make up a "enriched environment" published in Scientific Reports on September 20, 2017, by Simone Kühn, Sandra Düzel, Peter Eibich, Christian Krekel, Henry Wüstemann, Jens Kolbe, Johan Martensson, Jan Goebel, Jürgen Gallinat, Gert G. Wagner, and Ulman Lindenberger.

By MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do You Sleep on Your Back or Side? Here's The Research on 'Optimal' Sleep Positions

Image
William Dement, a renowned sleep researcher at Stanford University, is quoted as saying that after 50 years of study, the only reason he can think of for why we sleep is "because we become sleepy." Sleep certainly matters for our health and wellbeing even though it may be, as one researcher put it, "the sole major habit in quest of a function." Do we, however, have it right? What do studies on sleeping positions say? Is there a proper sleeping position? The majority of people favor sleeping on their side. This is encouraging news because people who sleep on their backs are more likely to have trouble falling asleep or breathing during the night. Most of the time, we have a tendency to shift around quite a bit at night. According to a study involving 664 sleepers, on average, participants slept on their side 54% of the time, their back 37% of the time, and their front 7% of the time. Males are more likely to change positions throughout the night and move their arms, ...
Read more

A Briefcase-Sized Box Is Already Making Oxygen on Mars

Image
Currently, the Martian atmosphere is in no way hospitable to Earthlings. It is formed primarily of carbon dioxide and is over 100 times less dense than Earth's atmosphere. It would soon stop breathing completely for any individuals who tried to breathe in it. A modest device, about the size of a suitcase, has been consistently extracting breathable oxygen from the Martian atmosphere on that sandy, arid, alien world. In order to manufacture breathing air for a human expedition to the red planet, it is the first demonstration of the processing of in situ resources for human use on another world. Its name is MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiment), and it is a device that utilizes electrolysis to separate Martian carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. It is mounted inside NASA's Perseverance rover. According to the researchers, MOXIE produced oxygen seven times as much between February 2021, when Perseverance arrived, until the end of 2021. Acco...
Read more

New DNA Research Unlocks Secrets of Native Rodents’ Rat Race to New Lands

Image
More than 150 different native rodent species from Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesian islands have had their DNA sequenced in recent studies. It provides a fuller understanding of their connections and the circumstances surrounding their expansion throughout the Pacific. The Australian National University's (ANU) Dr. Emily Roycroft, the study's lead author, said native rodents are an interesting but frequently underappreciated evolutionary group. Dr. Roycroft noted that over 150 species in Australia and New Guinea are unique to those regions and include the rakali, sometimes known as the "water rat," which is frequently spotted swimming in the lakes near Canberra. We now know relatively little about the history and development of native rodents, particularly those found in New Guinea. In order to obtain DNA from museum specimens up to 180 years old, including several extinct and secretive species, the study team developed a novel technique. "One Guadalcanal ra...
Read more