From Our Bureau
A new study finds quantifiable evidence that walking in nature could lead to a lower risk of depression.
Specifically, the study finds that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural area, as opposed to participants who walked in a high-traffic urban setting, showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression.
“These results suggest that accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world,” says coauthor Gretchen Daily, professor in environmental science and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “Our findings can help inform the growing movement worldwide to make cities more livable, and to make nature more accessible to all who live in them.”
It is essential for urban planners and other policymakers to provide green spaces in the jungle of cement concretes in cities as the study shows the close relationship between exposure to nature and mental health. “We want to explore what elements of nature—how much of it and what types of experiences—offer the greatest benefits,” Daily says.
City Dwellers: More than half of the world’s population lives in urban settings, and that is forecast to rise to 70 per cent within a few decades. Urbanization and disconnection from nature have grown dramatically, as have mental disorders such as depression.
In fact, city dwellers have a 20 per cent higher risk of anxiety disorders and a 40 per cent higher risk of mood disorders as compared to people in rural areas. People born and raised in cities are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia.
Is exposure to nature linked to mental health? If so, the researchers asked, what are nature’s impacts on emotion and mood? Can exposure to nature help “buffer” against depression?
Walk on the Highway: As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two groups of participants walked for 90 minutes, one in a grassland area scattered with oak trees and shrubs, the other along a traffic-heavy four-lane roadway. Before and after, the researchers measured heart and respiration rates, performed brain scans, and had participants fill out questionnaires.
The researchers found little difference in physiological conditions, but marked changes in the brain. Neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a brain region active during rumination—repetitive thought focused on negative emotions—decreased among participants who walked in nature versus those who walked in an urban environment.
“This finding is exciting because it demonstrates the impact of nature experience on an aspect of emotion regulation—something that may help explain how nature makes us feel better,” says lead author Gregory Bratman, a graduate student in Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, the Stanford Psychophysiology Lab, and the Center for Conservation Biology.
“These findings are important because they are consistent with, but do not yet prove, a causal link between increasing urbanization and increased rates of mental illness,” says coauthor James Gross, a professor of psychology at
Stanford.
