April 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 36

C O N S E R VAT I O N

The " Soft Fascination " of Nature
Research proves the calming effect of nature on the brain
By Richard J. Dolesh

A

walk in the park can calm and restore you. This is something we take for
granted in parks and recreation, because we have known it to be true ever
since we started spending time in nature. But new research reported in
the British Journal of Sports Medicine (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23467965)
now provides scientific proof that walking in nature and spending time under
leafy shade trees causes electrochemical changes in the brain that can lead people
to enter a highly beneficial state of " effortless attention. "
The UK researchers state with
some justifiable academic stuffiness
that " ...happiness, or the presence of
positive emotional mindsets, broadens an individual's thought-action
repertoire with positive benefits to
physical and intellectual activities,
and to social and psychological resources. " They assert that this mental
benefit-happiness, if you will-occurs in individuals who are engaged
in play, exploration, or other discov-

34

Parks & Recreation

ery-type activities. They note that until now, technology has not permitted
scientists to study the cortical correlates of persons actively engaged
within differing environments, but
new developments in mobile electroencephalography (EEG), however,
now allow exactly such measurements to be made.
In this recent study, a research
team from Herriot-Watt University
in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, out-

| A P R I L 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

fitted a group of test subjects with
mobile electrodes fastened to their
heads. The subjects then took programmed walks in three different
environments-an urban shopping
district, a park with a lush green environment, and a busy commercial
zone. The results showed evidence of
brain-wave activity indicating relaxed
states-lower frustration, lower " engagement and arousal, " and higher
meditative states-when moving into
the green space, and just the reverse
when moving out of it.
One of the most interesting aspects of this new research is how
it conforms to a theory concerning
the " soft fascination " of nature.
In The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective, researchers



April 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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