Neural correlates of appreciating natural landscape and landscape garden: Evidence from an fMRI study

Zhang, Wei; He, Xianyou; Liu, Sizhe; Li, Ting; Li, Jinhui; Tang, Xiaoxiang; Lai, Shuxian

doi:10.1002/brb3.1335

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…There are only a few studies that reported functional imaging findings when a person views greenery images. In terms of regional activation, one study using fMRI found that multiple cortical regions were activated when viewing landscape gardens and natural landscapes, including the inferior occipital lobe, the left superior parietal lobule, the right fusiform gyrus, the right cuneus, and the right hippocampus [ 4 ]. Another study using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) found that the activation for the contrast of urban versus garden showed a significant increase of oxy-hemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Zhang

Olszewska-Guizzo

Husain

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Background: There is little understanding on how brief relaxation practice and viewing greenery images would affect brain responses during cognitive tasks. In the present study, we examined the variation in brain activation of the prefrontal cortex during arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images, brief relaxation practice, and control task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Method: This randomized controlled study examined the activation patterns of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in three groups of research participants who were exposed to viewing greenery images (n = 10), brief relaxation practice (n = 10), and control task (n = 11). The activation pattern of the PFC was measured pre- and post-intervention using a portable fNIRS device and reported as mean total oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO μm). Primary outcome of the study is the difference in HbO μm between post- and pre-intervention readings during a cognitive task that required the research participants to perform arithmetic calculation. Results: In terms of intervention-related differences, there was significant difference in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after brief relaxation practice (p < 0.05). There were significant increases in average HbO μm in the right frontopolar cortex (p = 0.029), the left frontopolar cortex (p = 0.01), and the left orbitofrontal cortex (p = 0.033) during arithmetic tasks after brief relaxation practice. In contrast, there were no significant differences in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images (p > 0.05) and the control task (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our preliminary findings show that brief relaxation practice but not viewing greenery images led to significant frontal lobe activation during arithmetic tasks. The present study demonstrated, for the first time, that there was an increase in activation in neuroanatomical areas including the combined effort of allocation of attentional resources, exploration, and memory performance after the brief relaxation practice. Our findings suggest the possibility that the right frontopolar cortex, the left frontopolar cortex, and the left orbitofrontal cortex may be specifically associated with the benefits of brief relaxation on the brain.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Zhang

Olszewska-Guizzo

Husain

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…There are even studies using modern brain visualization techniques, such as fMRI, which demonstrate that experiencing natural environments really affects human brain function. Areas in the brain that are involved in appreciating and enjoying natural landscapes activate perceptual processes, cognitive processes, and the reward system ( Zhang et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Oxytocinergic System as a Mediator of Anti-stress and Instorative Effects Induced by Nature: The Calm and Connection Theory

2021

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Ever more research results demonstrate that human health and wellbeing are positively affected by stays in and/or exposure to natural areas, which leads, among other things, to a reduction in high stress levels. However, according to the studies, these natural areas must meet certain qualities. The qualities that are considered to be most health promoting are those that humans perceive in a positive way. Theories about how natural areas can reduce people’s stress levels and improve their coping skills have mainly focused on how certain natural areas that are perceived as safe reduce the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and consequent reduction of cortisol levels. This article discusses studies containing descriptions of how participants in rehabilitation perceive and react to natural phenomena. The common core variable in the analyzed studies was the experience of calm and connection, and this experience was associated with a reduction in stress levels and with being able to develop health and coping skills. We suggest that this experience provides a possible role for the oxytocinergic system to act as a physiological mediator for the positive and health-promoting effects in humans caused by nature. The theory is mainly based on analogies framed by theories and data from the fields of environmental psychology, horticulture, landscape architecture, medicine, and neuroscience. Oxytocin promotes different kinds of social interaction and bonding and exerts stress-reducing and healing effects. We propose that oxytocin is released by certain natural phenomena experienced as positive to decrease the levels of fear and stress, increase levels of trust and wellbeing, and possibly develop attachment or bonding to nature. By these effects, oxytocin will induce health-promoting effects. In situations characterized by low levels of fear and stress in response to release of oxytocin, the capacity for “growth” or psychological development might also be promoted. Such an instorative effect of nature, i.e., the capacity of nature to promote reorientation and the creation of new coping strategies, might hence represent an additional aspect of the oxytocin-linked effect profile, triggered in connection with certain nature phenomena. We conclude by proposing that the stress-relieving, health-promoting, restorative, and instorative effects of nature may involve activation of the oxytocinergic system.

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“…The results show a significant interaction between facial attractiveness and expression recognition and suggest that facial attractiveness influenced the participants’ identification of facial expressions, which was reflected in the fact that the participants were able to recognize the happy expressions on attractive faces more quickly, further demonstrating the advantage of happy expression recognition. The recognition of attractive faces and happy expressions may offer benefits via rewards, which could facilitate their rapid recognition (Chatterjee et al, 2009; Golle et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2017, 2019). In the absence of attractive faces, this advantage may be lacking in both dynamic and static experimental contexts, which is consistent with the prediction of the dynamic theory of face perception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Facial Attractiveness and Familiarity on Facial Expression Recognition

Zhou

et al. 2019

Front. Psychol.

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The classic theory of face perception holds that the invariant (e.g., identity and race) and variant (e.g., expression) dimensions of face information are independent of one another. Two separate neural systems are involved in face processing. However, the dynamic theory of face perception indicates that these two neural systems interact bidirectionally. Accordingly, by using the emotion categorization task and morph movies task, we investigated the influence of facial attractiveness on facial expression recognition and provided further evidence supporting the dynamic theory of face perception in both the static and dynamic contexts. In addition, this research used familiar celebrities (including actors, television personalities, politicians, and comedians) and explored the role of familiarity in face perception. In two experiments, the participants were asked to assess the expressions of faces with different levels of attractiveness and different levels of familiarity. We found that regardless of being in a static or dynamic face situation, happy expressions on attractive faces can be recognized more quickly, highlighting the advantage of happy expression recognition. Moreover, in static and dynamic familiar face situations, familiarity has a greater impact on expression recognition, and the influence of attraction on expression recognition may be weakened or even unaffected. Our results show that facial attractiveness influences the recognition of facial expressions in both static and dynamic contexts and highlight the importance of familiarity in face perception.

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Neural correlates of appreciating natural landscape and landscape garden: Evidence from an fMRI study

Cited by 21 publications

References 44 publications

Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

The Oxytocinergic System as a Mediator of Anti-stress and Instorative Effects Induced by Nature: The Calm and Connection Theory

The Effects of Facial Attractiveness and Familiarity on Facial Expression Recognition

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