Recent urban green space studies in Environmental neuroscience have allowed us to recognize the impact that nature has on individuals. Natural environments are a place of comfort that brings emotional stability, attention restoration, and stress recovery (Sun et al., 2022). Interestingly, over the past decade, there has been a rise in the popularity of virtual reality, which by definition is a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside. During the global pandemic, COVID-19, more than ever, VR headsets were skyrocketing in sales. A researcher states, in a recent article, “The VR HMDs such as the Oculus Quest have been largely sold out during the pandemic” (Johnson, 2020). Technology and gaming systems have been even more prevalent during and post-pandemic because of isolation and people having to quarantine. This leads to the fact that virtual reality has been recently studied and used to measure the physiological and affective responses in green space virtual reality amongst pregnant women. The whole country was on lockdown at one point during COVID-19 and it is interesting to study how virtual green space affects individuals compared to what we have learned about urban green space in the real world.
Berman et al. (2019) demonstrate how the external environment (urban green space) plays a role in improving our cognitive behaviors. Berman and his colleagues examined the effects of directed and undirected attention in urban green spaces. Walking in nature does not require a large amount of directed attention, instead, it allows us to zone out and utilize undirected attention. This allows us to restore our attention in the meantime since directed attention is finite and can be depleted, whereas undirected attention does not require as many resources. Environmental neuroscientists used this understanding to represent the success of the Attention Restoration Theory. The experiment consisted of two different groups who went on two different walk paths in both nature and urban areas. Once the participants returned, they were assessed by a backward digit span test. The two groups switched walk paths a week later and were assessed by a backward digit span test again. The order in which the paths were walked and the time of the year that the participants took these walks did not affect the study’s results. There was a significantly large increase in the average test scores for participants assessed after the nature walk versus a walk in the city. Therefore, walking in nature elicited better results for attention restoration and memory recall than the urban walks did.
On the other hand, a very recent study by Sun and his colleagues demonstrates how virtual reality simulation was used in green space to test the Stress Recovery Theory. Berman and his colleagues established that attention is restored more efficiently when walking in green space, but how does virtually interacting with nature affect our stress levels? Pregnant women were used as participants in this study to record the changes in maternal cortical levels due to stress which can affect the HPA axis functioning. In their study, it was hypothesized that short-term physiological and affective status on stress recovery would be improved among pregnant women when exposed to green space in a VR immersive environment (Sun et al., 2022). Participants were induced with moderate levels of stress using a Trier social stress test (TSST), following a random assignment to view three different, three to five-minute virtual 360-degree videos of green space using a virtual headset. The three different levels of green space settings consisted of non-green: urban street view without green space, middle: urban street view with a moderate level of green space, and high: urban park. After the participants viewed the simulations, they were assessed for post-stress recovery by the use of wristbands, monitoring their heartbeat and blood pressure, and performing a Likert-type scale survey to examine how they felt right after the simulations, using positive and negative emotional subscales. The results indicated that exposure to VR green space environments had better post-stress recovery effects both physiologically and psychologically compared to those exposed to the non-green space environment. Furthermore, exposure to the high-level green space environment in a park-like setting had the strongest impact on stress recovery overall. Lastly, the HPA axis showed lower levels of cortisol stress levels after viewing the high-level green space environment in participants (Sun et al., 2022).
Using both Berman and his colleagues and Sun and his colleagues’ studies on attention restoration and stress recovery in green space, we can understand the positive impact of nature in the developing field of Environmental neuroscience. We are living in a world where technology keeps evolving and we are amid a global pandemic which makes it very significant to explore our virtual options to reduce stress and better our mental health.
References:
Ball, C., Huang, K.-T., & Francis, J. (2021, October 13). Virtual reality adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic: A uses and Gratifications Perspective. Telematics and Informatics. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736585321001672
Berman, M. G., Stier, A. J., & Akcelik, G. N. (2019). Environmental neuroscience. American Psychologist, 74(9), 1039–1052. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000583
Sun, Y., Li, F., He, T., Meng, Y., Yin, J., Yim, I. S., Xu, L., & Wu, J. (2022, October 5). Physiological and affective responses to green space virtual reality among pregnant women. Environmental Research. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935122018266?casa_token=oOzQ_PDEJSEAAAAA%3AnfPTqcZBwj41wv64CQQ6hjJhPMlxy4xeqR5YbRoVU50YP_o8YSfHAEasYkB3qCXZfp3ErmKEuA
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Ishika Patel
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