Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Division of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health, HKUrbanLabs, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Neuroimage. 2021 Feb 1;226:117555. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117555. Epub 2020 Nov 12.
The mechanistic and neural bases of why green environments drive positive mental health outcomes remain poorly understood. We show that viewing green urban landscapes that vary in terms of green-space density elicits corresponding changes in the activity of the human ventral posterior cingulate cortex that is correlated to behavioural stress-related responses. We further show that cingulate responses are engaged early in the processing cascade, influencing attentional and executive regions in a predominantly feedforward manner. Our data suggest a key role for this region in regulating (nature) dose-dependent changes in stress responses, potentially through its extensive connections to the prefrontal and hippocampal regions which in turn project towards the neuroendocrine system. As the posterior cingulate cortex is implicated in a variety of neurological diseases and disorders, these findings raise a therapeutic potential for natural environmental exposure, highlighting green-cover as a modifiable element that links to changes in limbic responses, and has health consequences for practitioners and city-planners alike.
绿色环境为何能促进心理健康这一机制和神经基础仍知之甚少。我们发现，观看不同绿地密度的城市绿色景观会引起人类后扣带皮层腹侧活动的相应变化，而这种变化与行为应激反应相关。我们进一步表明，扣带反应在处理级联的早期被激活，以主要前馈的方式影响注意力和执行区域。我们的数据表明，该区域在调节（自然）与应激反应相关的剂量依赖性变化方面起着关键作用，可能通过其与前额叶和海马区域的广泛连接来实现，而这些区域又反过来投射到神经内分泌系统。由于后扣带皮层与多种神经疾病和障碍有关，这些发现为自然环境暴露提供了一种治疗潜力，强调了绿色覆盖作为一种可改变的元素，与边缘反应的变化相关，并对从业者和城市规划者都有健康影响。
