The Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Psychological Effects of Viewing Forest Landscapes in Autumn Season

Dawou Joung, Geonwoo Kim, Yoonho Choi, HyoJin Lim, Soonjoo Park, Jong-Min Woo and Bum-Jin Park
Additional contact information
Dawou Joung: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea
Geonwoo Kim: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea
Yoonho Choi: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea
HyoJin Lim: Department of Applied Biology, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea
Soonjoo Park: Department of Nursing, Eulji University, Daejeon 301-746, Korea
Jong-Min Woo: Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Paik Hospital, Inje University, School of Medicine, Seoul 100-032, Korea
Bum-Jin Park: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-9

Abstract: Recently reported research indicate that forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects compared to urban environments. However, some researchers claim that the stress of the subjects from being watched by others during measurements can affect the measurement result in urban experiments conducted in the center of a street. The present study was conducted to determine whether forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects, using comparison of viewing a forest area with viewing an urban area from the roof of an urban building without being watched by others. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement was performed on subjects while they viewed scenery for 15 min at each experimental site (urban and forest areas). Subjective assessments were performed after the NIRS measurement was complete. Total hemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin concentrations were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. For semantic differential in subjective assessments, feelings of “comfortable”, “natural”, and “soothed” were significantly higher in the forest area than in the urban area, and for profile of mood states, negative emotions were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. The results of physiological and psychological measurements show that viewing the forest enabled effective relaxation.

Keywords: forest therapy; near-infrared spectroscopy; prefrontal cortex activity; hemoglobin concentration; semantic differential method; profile of mood states (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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