Speaker
Description
More biodiverse nature confers a suite of mental health benefits, in particular when also perceived as such. There is, however, a substantial knowledge gap in how the human brain processes biodiversity, both measured and perceived, and how neural indicators provide insights into biodiversity-mental health linkages.
To test this, 52 participants between 18 and 35 years of age underwent four experimental conditions in a laboratory setting, whereby 5-minute presentations of photographs showing low vs. high forest diversity were compared to presentations of control photographs showing phase-scrambled versions of the original photosets (a low-scrambled and a high-scrambled condition). After each condition, a 3-tone auditory oddball paradigm was employed to measure attention. Continuous EEG recordings allowed for obtaining neurophysiological correlates of stress, attention and meditation-like states. We further asked participants to rate the photos according to perceived biodiversity.
We found that forest opposed to scrambled photos significantly increased early theta frequency band activity, indicative of inward directed attention associated with meditative or restorative states. Longer lasting shifts for the entire 5-minute photo viewing period were found for relaxation induced alpha that was increased as a function of greater diversity in both the forest and scrambled photos, and weakly by contrasting forests vs. scrambled photos. Visual event related potentials (ERPs) indicate differentiated neurocognitive patterns associated with the processing of forest vs. scrambled photographs. No differences between the conditions were found for auditory ERPs obtained through the oddball paradigm. Interestingly, perceived biodiversity had an effect on some of the tested neural makers, with the most consistent effects found for perceived plant species richness that was positively linked with early theta and attention-related auditory ERPs.
Forest photographs, particularly when perceived as more biodiverse, evoke brain signals that are associated with stress recovery, altered attention and meditation-like states. We therefore recommend to preserve and restore forest ecosystems to benefit human mental health while fostering indirect forest exposure in times of increased rural-urban migrations.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | No, I prefer to present only as a talk. |