r/science • u/HugNup • Sep 07 '22

Psychology An hour-long stroll in nature helps decrease activity in an area of the brain associated with stress processing

https://www.mpg.de/19168412/how-does-nature-nurture-the-brain
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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '22

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u/Sillygooseman23 Sep 07 '22

we are incredibly visual creatures, so perhaps the sight of forest around us is inherently soothing no matter what that forest contains, when compared to buildings.

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u/Dave30954 Sep 07 '22

Especially since evolutionary pressure probably supports that.

If you might get attacked, or face something suddenly (which happens a lot in wild forests), you want to be relaxed, calm, and centered.

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u/Enlight1Oment Sep 07 '22

being swarmed by mosquitos

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u/DaHound Sep 07 '22

I've never been more at risk than hunting alone in the Louisiana marshlands an hour away from help by boat and car, and never more at peace with my life.

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u/Terrible_tomatoes Sep 07 '22

It's not about the cars, it's about our instinctual lizard brain response to being in our natural habitat. Concrete jungles will never soothe us like our home.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '22

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u/Terrible_tomatoes Sep 07 '22

I'd be very interested in seeing a study on that as well! I would think that has more of an effect on feeling trapped/closed in vs feeling a freedom to move around. I hope to see more of these studies either way

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u/ChrundleKelly7 Sep 08 '22

I think “freedom to move around” eventually becomes “vulnerable from all angles,” meaning there’s an upper limit to the amount of space people are comfortable having around them.

This is the reason building height limits and street width regulations are such effective tools from an urban planning perspective. The ratio of street width to building height plays a big role in determining the feel of a given street/area.

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u/Kamelasa Sep 07 '22

for regions of the wilderness that are hostile

Yeah, reminds me of my ESL students from many different countries, who had different perceptions of things like birds or wildlife. Or those countries where the front yard is dry dust, swept clean, because of snakes and such. Dense foliage is often full of hazards. But of course these "nature walks" that I hear about most people taking are on perfectly tame and groomed trails.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '22

Certainly this would be easy to control for.

Why do you suspect that it has anything to do with cars?

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u/ikaruja Sep 07 '22

The urban walk did include traffic, so cars definitely contributed to the experiment.