Natural environment promotes deeper brain functional connectivity than built environment
Chen et al. BMC Neuroscience
Natural environment promotes deeper brain functional connectivity than built environment
Zheng Chen 1
Yujia He 0
Yuguo Yu 0
0 The State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University , Shanghai, 200433; China
1 Department of Landscape Studies, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University , Shanghai, 200092; China
Not only genes but also living environments can effectively shape living human infant brain growth and function performance through learning-driven neural plasticity. However, few evidences demonstrated that exposure to different environments may modulate adult
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Figure 1 Results of the exposure to built environment (B) and that to natural environment (N), were reported in mean power of
δ band (b), θ band (c), a band (d), b band (e) and g band (f). Average Cross-correlations of the 12 channels were displayed in (a).
Crosscorrelations of mean b powers between channels for to built environment (g) and natural environment (h) ,respectively. Wall-facing eye-closed
pretest baselines were marked as -C, while post-exposure statuses were marked as -P.
a (8-12 Hz), b (13-25 Hz) and g (25-70), are examined.
Sixteen college students were recruited and randomly
assigned to the two conditions. Participants were asked
to sit either in a built environment (i.e., a traffic island
under an elevated highway), or in a natural environment
(i.e., a heavily wooded campus garden). They were first
sitting facing walls as baselines excluded for visual
exposure for eight one-minute sessions with their eye open
and closed in turns (OCOCOCOC), and then they
turned to scene facing and exposed to the environment
for 20 minutes. EEG was measured in the latter 10
minutes of exposure, as well as during eye-open and
eyeclosed baseline sessions.
Functional connectivity analysis revealed that subjects
with eye close in both environments have stronger or
deeper functional connectivity among different brain
regions than eye-opened cases, while eye-opened
subjects walking in natural environments have stronger
functional connectivity than in highway environments
(see Figure 1a). Interestingly, power spectrum analysis
showed that EEG powers in all the frequency bands are
higher in natural environment than in built environment
(see Figure 1b~1f), indicating large-amplitude
synchronized EEG waves in the brains of natural environment
which strengthen deeper functional connectivities
among brain regions (see Figure 1g,h for example). These
results suggest that natural environment may promote a
better brain performance than built environment.
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