Physiological effects of forest recreation in a young conifer forest in Hinokage Town, Japan.
By Bum‐Jin Park, Y. Tsunetsugu, Tamami Kasetani, Takeshi. Morikowa, Takahide. Kugawa, Yoshifumi Miyazaki. 2009
235 citations recorded by the source corpus.
It is widely believed that coming into contact with forest environments is somehow beneficial to human well-being and comfort. In Japan, “Shinrin-yoku” (taking in the atmosphere of a forest) has been proposed to be a relaxation activity associated with forest recreation. The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological effects of forest recreation on the autonomic nervous activity. The subjects were twelve male university students (21.8 ± 0.8 years old). On the first day of the experiment, six subjects were sent to a forest area, and the other six to a city area. On the second day, each subject was sent to the area he did not visit on the first day as a cross check. The subjects walked (15 minutes) around their assigned areas before noon, and sat on chairs viewing (15 minutes) the landscapes of their assigned areas in the afternoon. Heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, and pulse rate were measured as physiological indices. Measurements were taken at the place of accommodation in the morning, before and after walking, and before and after viewing at their assigned field areas. Pulse rate, diastolic blood pressure and LF/(LF+HF) (LF – low frequency, HF – high frequency) components of HRV were significantly lower in the forest area than in the city area. HF components of HRV tended to be higher in the forest than in the city. In conclusion, the results of the physiological measurements show that forest recreation enabled effective relaxation in people, both of the mind and body.
Subfields: Education, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Sensory Systems
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8d07b27e5f301818744d121d11cd8eca312319be
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Education
In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Citations in the corpus
- How Is Leisure Time Interacting with Nature Related to the Need for Recovery from Work Demands? Testing Multiple Mediators (2010, background): “Decreases in heart rate variability (Park et al., 2009) and adrenaline and noradrenaline in urine (Li, 2010) after walking in forest settings also have been reported.”
- The Effects of a Short Forest Recreation Program on Physiological and Psychological Relaxation in Young Polish Adults (2019, background): “Physiological indices were also affected, as this program resulted in lowered diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate in the participants [7].”
- Joy and Calm: How an Evolutionary Functional Model of Affect Regulation Informs Positive Emotions in Nature (2016, background): “…vs urban control Higher than control Lower than control Y Y Park et al. 2008) 12 Forest vs urban control Higher than control Not significant P n/a Park et al. (2009) 9 Forest vs urban control Higher than control Lower than control Y n/a Park et al. (2010) n/a Review Higher than control Lower…”