Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of walking in forest environments on autonomic nervous activity with special reference to its distribution characteristics. Heart rate variability (HRV) of 485 male participants while walking for ~15 min in a forest and an urban area was analyzed. The experimental sites were 57 forests and 57 urban areas across Japan. Parasympathetic and sympathetic indicators [lnHF and ln(LF/HF), respectively] of HRV were calculated based on ~15-min heart rate recordings. Skewness and kurtosis of the distributions of lnHF and ln(LF/HF) were almost the same between the two environments, although the means and medians of the indicators differed significantly. Percentages of positive responders [presenting an increase in lnHF or a decrease in ln(LF/HF) in forest environments] were 65.2 and 67.0%, respectively. The percentage of lnHF was significantly smaller than our previous results on HRV during the viewing of urban or forest landscapes, whereas the percentage of ln(LF/HF) was not significantly different. The results suggest that walking in a forest environment has a different effect on autonomic nervous activity than viewing a forest landscape.
Highlights
“Shinrin-yoku” is a Japanese term for “forest bathing,” which was coined by the Director of the Japanese Forestry Agency, Tomohide Akiyama, in 1982 [1]
Heart rate variability (HRV) measurements have been applied in studies on the effects of walking in natural environments [19–21], which reported relaxation of autonomic nervous system in forest environments similar to that in studies conducted on a resting condition
The difference was not significant (p = 0.06), standard deviation (SD) was slightly greater in the forest environment than in the urban environment, resulting in coefficient of variation (CV) being almost unchanged (p = 0.83)
Summary
“Shinrin-yoku” is a Japanese term for “forest bathing,” which was coined by the Director of the Japanese Forestry Agency, Tomohide Akiyama, in 1982 [1]. HRV measurement is the most frequently used physiological indicator in studies on the effect of forest environments and demonstrates better results than other physiological measurements, such as salivary cortisol concentration [10]. Several studies have consistently demonstrated increases in HF and/or decreases in LF/HF in forest environments compared with the corresponding levels in urban environments [16–18]. These results suggest that being present in a forest environment relaxes the autonomic nervous system. HRV measurements have been applied in studies on the effects of walking in natural environments [19–21], which reported relaxation of autonomic nervous system in forest environments similar to that in studies conducted on a resting condition. We compared our results obtained during walking with those during the viewing landscapes reported in a previous study [17]
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