At a time when more than half the world\u2019s population lives in cities and people spend about 90 percent of their lives indoors, our relationship with the natural world has never been more distant or more essential to restore. Mounting evidence shows that even brief moments in nature can sharpen focus, lift mood, and protect the brain.<\/p>\n
Few scientists have done more to uncover why than Marc Berman<\/a>, Chair of Psychology and director of the Environmental Neuroscience<\/a> Lab at the University of Chicago. In his new book, Nature and the Mind<\/a>, Berman draws on years of experimental research to explain how green spaces nurture attention<\/a>, creativity<\/a>, and mental health and why access to them is a matter of equity and necessity, not luxury.<\/p>\n I spoke with Berman about what happens to our brains when we step outside, how much nature we really need, and what a \u201cNature Revolution\u201d might look like in our daily lives.<\/p>\n Burcin Ikiz: What exactly is \u201cenvironmental neuroscience,\u201d and how did you come to study it?<\/p>\n Marc Berman: Environmental neuroscience is about understanding how the physical environment, everything from trees and parks to noise, light, and air pollution, affects the brain and behavior. Most psychology and neuroscience work focuses on the individual, but we ask: How does the environment<\/a> itself shape cognition<\/a>, emotion<\/a>, and health? A lot of my work has focused on the natural environment\u2014how natural environments affect brain functioning and behavior\u2014but an equally important question is, given somebody\u2019s biology, what kind of environment might we design to optimize psychological and health variables? Could we design an environment that supports better attention, better working memory<\/a>, or more cooperation<\/a>? So it\u2019s a two-way street: how larger environmental phenomena affect biology, and how we might design environments differently given our biology.<\/p>\n BI: Why does spending time in nature seem to refresh our minds?<\/p>\n MB: One big idea is called Attention Restoration Theory, developed by my mentors Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. Humans have two main kinds of attention. Directed attention is the kind we use to focus deliberately, like when writing an email or solving a problem, and it can get fatigued. Involuntary attention, on the other hand, is automatically captured by interesting stimuli like a rustling tree or moving clouds, and it\u2019s much less depleting. When you\u2019re in a safe, natural environment, your directed attention can rest while your involuntary attention is gently engaged. That combination, what we call \u201csoft fascination,\u201d seems to replenish focus and reduce mental fatigue.<\/p>\n BI: What makes an environment \u201csoftly fascinating\u201d?<\/p>\n MB: Natural environments tend to have certain perceptual features, such as fractal patterns, curved edges, gentle motion, and complexity that feels organized rather than chaotic. Think of a tree\u2019s branches, waves on water, or birdsong. These patterns are pleasing and easy for the brain to process. One thing we\u2019re finding is that nature scenes are more compressible. You can compress them into fewer bits while preserving meaning. JPEG algorithms used by our computers and phones literally compress nature photos more (i.e., into fewer bits) than urban photos, and maybe our brains do something similar: You can throw away many of the high-frequency details of nature that maybe make natural stimulation easier to process.<\/p>\n Applied to homes and schools, bringing in natural elements and mimicking natural patterns \u2014what architects call biophilic design \u2014 may produce some of these benefits. Our brains may find nature more fluent, less work to process, and therefore restorative.<\/p>\n BI: How much nature do we need, and does it matter if we enjoy it?<\/p>\n MB: In our studies, people who took 50-minute walks in nature showed about a 20 percent improvement in working memory compared to walks in busy urban areas. Even viewing photos or listening to nature sounds for 10 minutes helps, though not as much as the real thing.<\/p>\n Interestingly, enjoyment isn\u2019t required. People who walked in a cold Michigan winter, and didn\u2019t like it at all, still showed the same cognitive boost as those who walked on a warm summer day. So comfort matters. You need to feel safe, but you don\u2019t have to \u201clove\u201d nature for it to be good for you.<\/p>\n BI: Can art, architecture, or photos substitute for the real thing?<\/p>\n MB: They can help, especially for those without easy access to green spaces. Photos, plants, or biophilic design, such as buildings that mimic natural patterns, can produce smaller but meaningful effects. However, real nature engages multiple senses: the smell of trees, the feel of bark, the temperature, and the humidity of the air. That multisensory input seems to deepen the benefits. If you only have access to a few plants or nature sounds indoors, that\u2019s still worthwhile. But try to vary your exposure, like visiting different parks, experiencing different seasons, or exploring different views, so it stays engaging.<\/p>\n BI: You took participants\u2019 phones away during nature walks. Why?<\/p>\n MB: Because distractions break the spell. When you\u2019re texting or scrolling, you\u2019re using directed attention again\u2014the very system you\u2019re trying to restore. Studies show that being on a phone during a walk can completely erase the mental health benefits. If you want the effects, put the phone away. Let your attention be captured by the environment: the light, the sounds, and the motion around you.<\/p>\n Environment Essential Reads<\/p>\n BI: You\u2019ve also studied nature’s effects on people with depression<\/a>. What did you find?<\/p>\n MB: We were curious whether walking alone in nature might make rumination worse. Surprisingly, it did the opposite: People with diagnosed depression who took nature walks improved their memory and attention even more than healthy participants did. Nature seems to quiet self-focused thought and promote more reflective, outward thinking: less \u201cme,\u201d more connection to others and the world. That might explain why doctors in the U.K. and Canada are now writing \u201cgreen prescriptions\u201d as a supplement to therapy<\/a> or medication<\/a>.<\/p>\n BI: What about children or older adults?<\/p>\n MB: Children who spend more time in green spaces show better attention and lower rates of ADHD<\/a> symptoms. There\u2019s emerging evidence that nature exposure benefits people with Alzheimer\u2019s or mild cognitive impairment<\/a>, too. Interestingly, younger kids don\u2019t always prefer nature. They often prefer urban scenes, but exposure to nature is still good for them. We sometimes say nature is like spinach: It doesn\u2019t have to be your favorite thing to be healthy.<\/p>\n BI: In your book, you write that nature isn\u2019t an amenity, it\u2019s a necessity.<\/p>\n MB: We need to stop treating green space as a luxury add-on. It\u2019s as essential as sleep, exercise, or nutrition<\/a>. That means designing cities differently: planting more trees, creating accessible parks, bringing natural elements into schools, hospitals, and workplaces. It also means ensuring safety and access, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods where parks may exist but people don\u2019t feel safe using them.<\/p>\n Cities aren\u2019t the enemy; in fact, larger, denser cities often have lower rates of depression and more innovation per capita. But cities also fatigue us. So we should weave nature into them \u2014 on rooftops, along streets, inside buildings \u2014 to make urban life more restorative.<\/p>\n BI: What\u2019s one practical step we can take today?<\/p>\n MB: When you feel mentally drained, resist the urge to reach for your phone. Instead, step outside, even briefly. Look at a tree, listen to birds, notice clouds. If that\u2019s not possible, play a nature soundscape or look at natural images. Ten mindful<\/a> minutes in nature can do more for your brain than an hour of scrolling.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love people to see nature as part of their mental-health toolkit, not an optional indulgence. We don\u2019t need to move to the wilderness. We need to bring more of the natural world into our daily rhythms. Small moments matter. And when enough people and cities take that seriously, that\u2019s how we start a Nature Revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a time when more than half the world\u2019s population lives in cities and people spend about 90…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-121591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}