Abstract
IntroductionRambling natural landscapes or landscape gardens may invoke positive emotions. However, the manner in which people experience landscape gardens and the cortical differences in the appreciation of the naturalness and artificiality of landscapes remain unknown.MethodsThis study scanned participants with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed photographs of natural landscapes and landscape gardens and performed scene type judgment task.ResultsAs predicted, we identified brain regions that were associated with perceptual process, cognitive process, and rewarding experience when appreciating natural landscapes and landscape gardens without color preference. Meanwhile, the contrast between the appreciation of landscape gardens and natural landscapes was characterized by stronger activations of the inferior occipital lobe, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL), the right fusiform gyrus, the right cuneus, and the right hippocampus.ConclusionsResponses in these regions indicate that the appreciation of landscape gardens and natural landscapes relies on common cortical regions, and suggest the possibility that the inferior occipital lobe, the SPL, the fusiform gyrus, and the cuneus may be specifically associated with the appreciation of landscape gardens.
Highlights
Rambling natural landscapes or landscape gardens may invoke posi‐ tive emotions
The results showed that the left precuneus extending to the left middle cingulate, the left me‐ dial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) extending to the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) extending to the left hippocampus, and the left inferior parietal gyrus were commonly activated
This study aimed to identify the neural basis underlying the percep‐ tion and appreciation of natural landscapes and landscape gardens by subtracting the regions activated by the baseline condition from the regions of the brain activated by viewing color photographs of natural landscapes and landscape gardens
Summary
Rambling natural landscapes or landscape gardens may invoke posi‐ tive emotions. the manner in which people experience landscape gardens and the cortical differences in the appreciation of the naturalness and artificiality of landscapes remain unknown. Previous behavioral empirical studies have found that contact with the natural environment or green space in urban areas is in a sense good for the experience of human beings, in terms of stress reduction (Joye, 2007), greater vitality (Ryan et al, 2010), higher rewarding experience (Zhang, Tang, He, & Chen, 2018; Zhang, Tang, He, & Lai, 2018), an improvement in social performance (Zhang, Piff, Iyer, Koleva, & Keltner, 2014) and cognitive function (Atchley, Strayer, & Atchley, 2012; Bratman, Hamilton, & Daily, 2012) This evidence coincides with the framework of evolutionary psychology, which argues that the perception and appreciation of architectural environments or scenes with green space is associated with survival, reproduction, and environmental adaptations of humans (Killin, 2013; Seghers, 2015; Zhang, Tang, He, & Lai, 2018), and is linked to the enhancement of positive experience
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