An Association between Nature Exposure and Physiological Measures of Emotion and Cognition

Abstract

Nature environments have significant benefits for human psychological functioning, in both the cognitive and emotional domains. These positive effects have been found primarily with questionnaires, performance measures, and transient physiological measures. This study explores the long-term relationships between degree of nature exposure and physiological states. With a publically available dataset, multiple hierarchical regressions were conducted testing the relationship between reported nature exposure and two physiological measures of cognition and emotion, including alpha band EEG asymmetry and degree of eyeblink startle reflex (EBR). A significant relationship was found with nature exposure and these measures, suggesting that nature has enduring positive effects for human functioning via measured physiology.