Exploration of neural correlates of restorative environment exposure through functional magnetic resonance

Martínez-Soto, Joel; Gonzáles-Santos, Leopoldo; Pasaye, Erick H.; Barrios, Fernando A.

doi:10.1080/17508975.2013.807765

Cited by 50 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…However, contrary to our hypothesis, higher levels of 'engagement' or 'frustration' were not associated with walking in an urban busy location. 'Excitement' may be indicative of increased levels of top-down attention previously associated with viewing urban images [8]. This aligns with the spatial context in that the urban busy route has an increased amount of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic and participants also encountered increased obstacles in the path (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…Conversely, top-down processing is associated with increased directed attention and subsequent fatigue [31]. Recent fMRI research has indicated that viewing urban images is associated with an active network similar to that present in top-down attentional processing, while viewing images of green scenery is associated with an active network reflective of bottom-up processing [8]. Perhaps, the results presented, showing higher level of 'engagement' in the green condition in this study, are indicative of increased bottom-up processing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, walking in nature has been shown to be beneficial for both well-being [3][4][5] and cognition [6,7]. The literature suggests that the difference between directed (top-down) attention, where an environment demands increased cognitive effort, such as a busy road crossing, and involuntary (bottom-up) attention, where features of an environment are interesting as opposed to demanding, may contribute the mechanism for the beneficial effect of nature [8]. This aligns with Attention Restoration Theory [9][10][11] which posits that natural spaces have a restorative effect against cognitive fatigue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has shown distinct networks of activation associated with viewing urban and rural scenes [8,12] and demonstrated that these networks could be mediated by emotional preference [13]. In addition, reductions in resting state activation were found in the subgenual prefrontal cortex after a 90-min walk in nature as compared with a 90-min walk in an urban environment [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, reductions in resting state activation were found in the subgenual prefrontal cortex after a 90-min walk in nature as compared with a 90-min walk in an urban environment [3]. Electroencephalography (EEG) has shown that observing static rural images can induce increases in alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) Hz) neural activity [14,15] associated with relaxation [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Aging Urban Brain: Analyzing Outdoor Physical Activity Using the Emotiv Affectiv Suite in Older People

Neale

Aspinall²,

Roe

et al. 2017

J Urban Health

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This research directly assesses older people's neural activation in response to a changing urban environment while walking, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG). The study builds on previous research that shows changes in cortical activity while moving through different urban settings. The current study extends this methodology to explore previously unstudied outcomes in older people aged 65 years or more (n = 95). Participants were recruited to walk one of six scenarios pairing urban busy (a commercial street with traffic), urban quiet (a residential street) and urban green (a public park) spaces in a counterbalanced design, wearing a mobile Emotiv EEG headset to record real-time neural responses to place. Each walk lasted around 15 min and was undertaken at the pace of the participant. We report on the outputs for these responses derived from the Emotiv Affectiv Suite software, which creates emotional parameters ('excitement', 'frustration', 'engagement' and 'meditation') with a real-time value assigned to them. The six walking scenarios were compared using a form of high dimensional correlated component regression (CCR) on difference data, capturing the change between one setting and another. The results showed that levels of 'engagement' were higher in the urban green space compared to those of the urban busy and urban quiet spaces, whereas levels of 'excitement' were higher in the urban busy environment compared with those of the urban green space and quiet urban space. In both cases, this effect is shown regardless of the order of exposure to these different environments. These results suggest that

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%