Abstract
Exposure to environments that contain natural features can benefit mood, cognition, and physiological responses. Previous research proposed exposure to nature restores voluntary attention – attention that is directed towards a task through top down control. Voluntary attention is limited in capacity and depletes with use. Nature provides unique stimuli that do not require voluntary attention; therefore, the neural resources needed for attention to operate efficiently are theorized to restore when spending time in nature. Electroencephalography reflects changes in attention through fluctuations in power within specific frequencies. The current study (N = 29) measured changes in averaged resting state posterior alpha power before, during, and after a multiday nature exposure. Linear mixed-effects models revealed posterior alpha power was significantly lower during the nature exposure compared to pre-trip and post-trip testing, suggesting posterior alpha power may be a potential biomarker for differences related to exposure to natural and urban environments.
Highlights
Nature provides unique visual and auditory stimuli that benefit mood and cognitive performance
Nine participants had one session removed from the eyes-opened condition and eight participants had one session removed from the eyes-closed condition due to excess artifacts
These models used a random intercept to account for differences in baseline resting power between participants and maximum likelihood to estimate mean change across the three sessions
Summary
Nature provides unique visual and auditory stimuli that benefit mood and cognitive performance. Nature – defined in this context as non-manmade ecosystems that support a rich diversity of vegetation and complex views – are rated as optimal for restoration of cognitive processing (Stigsdotter, Corazon, Sidenius, Refshauge, & Grahn, 2017). Unpredictable and spacious environments were associated with higher self-reported creativity (van Rompay & Jol, 2016), and naturalist gardens without elements of structure are perceived more restorative compared to formal, structured gardens (Twedt, Rainey, & Proffitt, 2016). Regularly viewing nature correlated with higher self-reported mood (Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995), especially nature scenes containing water (Felsten, 2009).
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