Virtual Forest Environment Influences Inhibitory Control

Exposure to natural green environments, whether through visual media or in person, can bring numerous benefits to physical and mental health. Given the restorative effects that natural forest environments have on the human mind, it is plausible to assume that these effects can also extend to cogniti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Land (Basel) 2023-07, Vol.12 (7), p.1390
Main Authors: Benedetti, Viola, Gavazzi, Gioele, Giganti, Fiorenza, Carlo, Elio, Becheri, Francesco Riccardo, Zabini, Federica, Giovannelli, Fabio, Viggiano, Maria Pia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Cognitive tasks
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease
Experiments
Exposure
forest therapy
Forests
Go/No-Go
Go/no-go discrimination learning
Health aspects
Impulsivity
inhibitory control
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Mental health
Urban areas
Video
virtual environment
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Summary:Exposure to natural green environments, whether through visual media or in person, can bring numerous benefits to physical and mental health. Given the restorative effects that natural forest environments have on the human mind, it is plausible to assume that these effects can also extend to cognitive processes, such as cognitive control, which are fundamental to higher-level cognitive function. In this study, we investigated whether viewing videos of urban or forest environments would have an impact on inhibitory control and attention in people with or without a past COVID-19 infection. To investigate the impact of virtual natural and urban videos on cognitive performance, 45 participants were recruited, and the exposure to forest vs. urban videos was assessed on a Go/No-Go task and an Attentional Network Test. The data showed that in both groups, exposure to the forest videos improved the inhibitory component. The results are discussed in the context of the well-established evidence of the beneficial effects of green environments.
ISSN:2073-445X
2073-445X
DOI:10.3390/land12071390