Human history has unfolded largely in bucolic settings, with sprawling savannas and forested river valleys hosting our ancestors for millions of years.
By comparison, cities represent a radical new kind of habitat, one that despite its many perks often strains our mental health. Research has linked urban environments with increased risk for anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems, including schizophrenia.
Fortunately, research also hints at a solution: Visiting wilderness, even briefly, is associated with an array of mental and physical health benefits, including lower blood pressure, reduced anxiety and depression, improved mood, better focus, better sleep, better memory, and faster healing.
Numerous studies have supported this correlation, but we still have a lot to learn. Can just walking in a forest really spark all these beneficial changes in the brain? And if so, how?
One good place to look for clues is the amygdala, a small structure in the center of the brain involved in stress processing, emotional learning, and the fight-or-flight response.
Research indicates the amygdala is less activated during stress in rural residents versus city dwellers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean rural living causes this effect. Maybe it’s the opposite, and people who naturally have this trait are more likely to live out in the country.
To address that question, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development devised a new study, this time with help from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Using 63 healthy adult volunteers, the researchers asked subjects to fill out questionnaires, perform a working memory task, and undergo fMRI scans while answering questions, some of which were designed to induce social stress. Participants were told the study involved MRI and going on a walk, but they didn’t know the goal of the research.
