Marocco Silvia, Vitale Valeria, Grossi Elena, Presaghi Fabio, Talamo Alessandra
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 23;16:1637669. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1637669. eCollection 2025.
The relationship between environmental factors and mental health is widely acknowledged in the field of Environmental Psychology, with nature-based therapies emerging as a promising approach for mental health treatment. In particular, nature has been recognized as a valuable complementary resource for mindfulness practice. At the same time, Virtual Reality (VR) provides innovative solutions to the challenges posed by conventional mindfulness practices, reducing external distractions and fostering an immersive, present-focused experience. This study explores the effects of a nature VR-based and a conventional mindfulness intervention on the mindfulness state (decentering and curiosity) and emotions (positive and negative), with the aim of determining whether virtual nature can enhance mindfulness practice. The findings indicate that both conventional and VR-based mindfulness interventions effectively enhanced decentering; however, only the VR-based intervention significantly reduced negative emotions, suggesting that virtual natural environments may play a role in emotional regulation, as supported by previous research. On the other hand, no significant changes were observed in terms of curiosity or positive emotions across both intervention types. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of how nature-based therapies and immersive technologies can support mental health treatment, providing a foundation for future research on the potential synergy between VR, mindfulness, and natural environments.
环境因素与心理健康之间的关系在环境心理学领域已得到广泛认可，基于自然的疗法已成为一种有前景的心理健康治疗方法。特别是，自然已被视为正念练习的宝贵补充资源。与此同时，虚拟现实（VR）为传统正念练习带来的挑战提供了创新解决方案，减少了外部干扰，并营造了一种沉浸式、专注当下的体验。本研究探讨了基于自然VR的干预和传统正念干预对正念状态（去中心化和好奇心）以及情绪（积极和消极）的影响，旨在确定虚拟自然是否能增强正念练习。研究结果表明，传统的和基于VR的正念干预均能有效增强去中心化；然而，只有基于VR的干预显著降低了负面情绪，这表明虚拟自然环境可能在情绪调节中发挥作用，先前的研究也支持这一点。另一方面，两种干预类型在好奇心或积极情绪方面均未观察到显著变化。总体而言，本研究有助于理解基于自然的疗法和沉浸式技术如何支持心理健康治疗，为未来关于VR、正念和自然环境之间潜在协同作用的研究奠定了基础。
