Green areas in the inner city can directly improve the wellbeing of urban citizens. This is the result of an interdisciplinary study, in which Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was involved. According to the study, people with a reduced brain capacity to self-regulate negative feelings benefit most from the green areas. The study combining epidemiology, psychology, neural imaging, and geo informatics is reported in Nature Neuroscience (DOI 10.1038/s41593-019-0451-y).
Neighboring green areas with trees, shrubs, lawns, and flowers make people feel good not only in the heat of summer. The reasons were studied on a neural level by researchers of KIT’s Institute of Sports and Sports Science (IfSS), the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), Mannheim, and Heidelberg University. “We pursued an interdisciplinary approach combining methods of epidemiology, psychology, neuroimaging, and geo informatics, “ says Professor Ulrich Ebner-Priemer, Deputy Head of the IfSS and Head of the Mental mHealth Lab specialized in outpatient assessment, i.e. registration of human experience and behavior in everyday life.
In the study coordinated by the CIMH, 33 urban citizens aged from 18 to 28 were asked to evaluate their mood with specially equipped smartphones about nine times per day for one week. During this period, the participants went on with their normal daily routines. After this, the proportion of green areas in the neighborhood was determined from highly resolved aerial photos and with the help of geo-information methods. In situations, in which they were surrounded by more green areas in the city, the participants turned out to have a higher wellbeing. In a second step, 52 other young adults were asked to assess their mood in everyday life in the same way. After the assessment phase of seven days, these participants were additionally examined by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This method is used to represent certain brain functions. The results of the second group were found to be in agreement with those of the first run.
Read more at Karlsruher Institut Für Technologie (KIT)
Image: Green areas with lawns and trees make urban citizens feel good. The reasons have now been studied on a neural level. (Credit: Gabi Zachmann, KIT)