Weekly Roundup: Nature and Brain Health, Women's Tears Lowers Aggression in Men, Caffeine and Decision-Making, Surprise in the Brain, Making People More Hypnotisable
The weekly roundup on all things the brain, behaviour, and psychology.
So at the start of 2024 there’s been plenty to report on - some of these stories coming in at the end of 2023. And as usual it’s a hard to pick to make but there’s some fun, some fascinating, and some important updates for you this week.
Closeness to Nature Improves Mental Health
There has been plenty of research into how exposure to nature benefits human health. the research is pretty consistently good - I previously reported on a review of the literature that supported that (see links below).
So arguably this may not be new news, however, the support is important and this recent research showed that even small changes in nature can make a difference and that older people may be more susceptible to this (or their risk of mental health issues may be higher).
Vegaraju and Amiri of Washington State University analysed the data from 42’000 people living in urban areas in Washington State and this was combined with surveys on mental and physical health and access to green and blue spaces, such as parks, forests, and lakes. And this showed an expected but also surprising relationship.
The unsurprising relationship, because this has been seen in multiple other studies, is that proximity to green and blue spaces seems to promote physical and mental wellbeing. But this study also looked at specific demographics and noticed a particularly strong relationship in older adults - this is the surprise. The other surprise is that only a 10% increase in forest cover or green space showed a significant impact on mental health and general wellbeing.
So another one showing the positive impacts of nature - maybe we should be giving prescriptions to green spaces. And the takeaway for us is to make sure we have access to and spend time in nature - your brain and body will thank you for it.
Further posts on Nature
And from nature to our human nature and some interesting research which I couldn’t help but report on:
Sniffing Women's Tears Lowers Aggression in Men
Chemo signalling is common in the plant and animal world but has not been very well researched in human beings - we are just more complex. This chemical signalling is to be expected - we should be responding to the environment and the stimuli whether by smell or sight - but how to measure this?
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