Flee the city! Trees & Nature make minds and bodies work better

Want to be more successful in the rat race? The answer is to spend
less time in the Rat Race! –Editor, Forest Policy Research

Scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and
the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they
have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few
minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold
things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control.

While it’s
long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why
Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually
dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so. “The mind is a limited
machine,”says Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of
Michigan and lead author of a new study that measured the cognitive
deficits caused by a short urban walk. “And we’re beginning to
understand the different ways that a city can exceed those
limitations.” One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of
nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have
demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more
quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women
living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment
overlooks a grassy courtyard.

Even these fleeting glimpses of nature
improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental
break from the urban roil. This research arrives just as humans cross
an important milestone: For the first time in history, the majority of
people reside in cities. For a species that evolved to live in small,
primate tribes on the African savannah, such a migration marks a
dramatic shift. Instead of inhabiting wide-open spaces, we’re crowded
into concrete jungles, surrounded by taxis, traffic, and millions of
strangers. In recent years, it’s become clear that such unnatural
surroundings have important implications for our mental and physical
health, and can powerfully alter how we think. This research is also
leading some scientists to dabble in urban design, as they look for
ways to make the metropolis less damaging to the brain. The good news
is that even slight alterations, such as planting more trees in the
inner city or creating urban parks with a greater variety of plants,
can significantly reduce the negative side effects of city life. The
mind needs nature, and even a little bit can be a big help.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/how_the_city_hurts_your_brain/

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