Nature immersion · Guided Hike · Consciousness

Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation

Bratman GN, Hamilton JP, Hahn KS, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015

Rumination, the habit of repetitive negative thinking about oneself, is linked to higher risk of depression. In this study published in PNAS, healthy participants took a 90-minute walk either in a natural setting or in an urban setting. Those who walked in nature showed reduced self-reported rumination and reduced activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with rumination, as measured by brain imaging. Those who walked along a busy urban route showed no such changes. The authors suggest this may be one pathway by which nature experience supports mental well-being, and that accessible natural areas could be an important mental health resource. One limitation is that the abstract does not report a large sample, and the participants were healthy adults, so the effect in people with depression is not tested here.

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