Cognitive and emotional responses to urban and nature exposures in the Brazilian Cerrado

Authors

  • Ana Beatriz dos Santos Costa Laboratório de Fauna e Unidades de Conservação, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade de Brasí­lia
  • Mariana de-Carvalho Universidade de Brasí­lia
  • Victória Oliveira Matos Laboratório de Fauna e Unidades de Conservação, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade de Brasí­lia
  • Reuber Albuquerque Brandão Laboratório de Fauna e Unidades de Conservação, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade de Brasí­lia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3940-2544

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17648/heringeriana.v14i1.917909

Abstract

Contact with nature increases human health and well-being by stress reduction, positive-emotion
elicitation, and attentional restoration. Despite the outstanding Brazilian biodiversity, we are unaware of
studies linking nature experiences to welfare. Herein, we applied cognitive tasks and emotional self-reports
in 33 subjects, before and after a 30-minute walk in a nature trail at Parque Nacional de Brasí­lia, and compared them with the same tests applied before and after a 30-minute walk in Brasiliaôs downtown. We recorded improvements in emotional self-reports after nature experience, while the urban exposure caused decreases in self-reported happiness and increases in negative emotions. These results highlight the relevance of natural settings for cognitive and emotional well-being and the need for a better understanding of the relationships between nature and human health. The recognition that mental health is an ecosystem service can improve the arguments for nature conservation, and the quality of life and public health.

Author Biography

Reuber Albuquerque Brandão, Laboratório de Fauna e Unidades de Conservação, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade de Brasí­lia

Biólogo, doutor em ecologia. Ecologia de comunidades, Herpetologia, conservação da biodiversidade

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Published

2020-08-06

How to Cite

Costa, A. B. dos S., de-Carvalho, M., Matos, V. O., & Brandão, R. A. (2020). Cognitive and emotional responses to urban and nature exposures in the Brazilian Cerrado. Heringeriana, 14(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.17648/heringeriana.v14i1.917909

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2020): Heringeriana

Section

Original Articles

License

By submitting, the authors declare that they have not submitted the work to another journal and agree to have their article published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International BY License (CC BY 4.0), which means that authors retain ownership of the copyright but anyone can use the published content provided the original authors and source are cited. The scientific, orthographic and grammatical content is the full responsibility of the authors.

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