PLX Academy · News · 06 October 2022
The research shows that walking in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and buffering the potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.
After a 60-minute walk in nature, activity in brain regions involved in stress processing decreases. This is finding of recent study by the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, and contributes to the understanding of how our physical living environment affects brain and mental health.
Living in a city is a well-known risk factor for developing a mental disorder, while living close to nature is largely beneficial for mental health and the brain. A central brain region involved in stress processing, the amygdala, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people who live in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, hinting at the potential benefits of nature.
To achieve causal evidence, the researchers from the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The results of the study revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature elicits beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress.
“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link. Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions remained stable and did not show increases, which argues against a commonly held view that urban exposure causes additional stress,” explains Simone Kühn, head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience.
The authors show that nature has a positive impact on brain regions involved in stress processing and that it can already be observed after a one-hour walk. Even a short exposure to nature decreases amygdala activity, suggesting that a walk in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and buffering the potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.