The effects of views of nature on autonomic control

Previously studies have shown that nature improves mood and self-esteem and reduces blood pressure. Walking within a natural environment has been suggested to alter autonomic nervous system control, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive method of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	European journal of applied physiology Vol. 112; no. 9; pp. 3379 - 3386
Main Authors:	Gladwell, V. F., Brown, D. K., Barton, J. L., Tarvainen, M. P., Kuoppa, P., Pretty, J., Suddaby, J. M., Sandercock, G. R. H.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01-09-2012 Springer Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Adult Autonomic Nervous System - physiology Biological and medical sciences Biomedical and Life Sciences Biomedicine Blood pressure Blood Pressure - physiology Cross-Over Studies Electrocardiography Environment Exercise Female Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Heart rate Heart Rate - physiology Housing Human Physiology Humans Hypotheses Laboratories Male Middle Aged Nature Nervous system Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine Ocular Physiological Phenomena Original Article Photography Physical fitness Physiology Respiration Self esteem Sports Medicine Trees Vertebrates: body movement. Posture. Locomotion. Flight. Swimming. Physical exercise. Rest. Sports United Kingdom > UK Nature Environment Cardiovascular Autonomic control Vagal activity Human
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Summary:	Previously studies have shown that nature improves mood and self-esteem and reduces blood pressure. Walking within a natural environment has been suggested to alter autonomic nervous system control, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive method of assessing autonomic control and can give an insight into vagal modulation. Our hypothesis was that viewing nature alone within a controlled laboratory environment would induce higher levels of HRV as compared to built scenes. Heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured during viewing different scenes in a controlled environment. HRV was used to investigate alterations in autonomic activity, specifically parasympathetic activity. Each participant lay in the semi-supine position in a laboratory while we recorded 5 min ( n = 29) of ECG, BP and respiration as they viewed two collections of slides (one containing nature views and the other built scenes). During viewing of nature, markers of parasympathetic activity were increased in both studies. Root mean squared of successive differences increased 4.2 ± 7.7 ms ( t = 2.9, p = 0.008) and natural logarithm of high frequency increased 0.19 ± 0.36 ms 2 Hz −1 ( t = 2.9, p = 0.007) as compared to built scenes. Mean HR and BP were not significantly altered. This study provides evidence that autonomic control of the heart is altered by the simple act of just viewing natural scenes with an increase in vagal activity.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-News-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23
ISSN:	1439-6319 1439-6327
DOI:	10.1007/s00421-012-2318-8