The Relationship between Natural Environments, Fatigue, and Attention

联合国估计，到2050年，大约70%的世界人口将生活在高度城市化的地区。城市生活的增加带来了许多好处：可持续的生活空间，更多的想法和创新，更接近服务，以及多样化的社区。不幸的是，目前的城市生活还伴随着压力增加、身心健康状况恶化以及预期寿命缩短。所有这些负面影响都会改变我们的生理、大脑和行为。通过了解暴露在自然中与认知表现之间关系的心理、神经和生理机制，未来的研究将能够更容易地实施旨在改善已建空间的干预措施，以增强人类生产力和活力的潜力。这项研究是在注意力恢复理论的指导下进行的，该理论认为，将自然元素融入到建成的环境中可以抵消城市生活的一些负面影响。这项建议的成果可以用来帮助设计学校、办公室、住宅、城镇，以优化人类的功能。几个世纪以来，哲学家、作家和门外汉都有一种直觉，即与自然互动对人类功能有无数好处。尽管这种直觉很吸引人，但它需要经过严格的检验。该项目旨在利用尖端的神经科学、心理生理学和机器学习工具，确定与自然环境相互作用可能增强行为和大脑功能的机制。本研究项目的主要目标如下。首先，这项研究将检查在与自然环境相互作用过程中改变的心理、生理和神经过程。它将解决一些问题，比如当大脑处理更自然的刺激与更多的城市刺激时，大脑必须付出多大的努力，以及这种处理如何影响人们的专注能力。其次，研究将确定一些特征(例如，颜色、边缘内容、分形度等低级视觉特征)。自然和城市环境导致心理改善或减少。这些信息将有助于理解可能产生这些好处的一些视觉特征，然后可以用来帮助设计新的已建空间或翻新现有的已建空间。第三，这项研究将测试处于精神疲惫状态的人是否会从自然环境比城市环境中获得更多好处。这方面的工作将有助于确定精神疲劳的神经和心理生理学基础。综上所述，本研究项目旨在了解与不同环境的相互作用如何影响人类功能，以及可以采取哪些干预措施来大规模改善人类功能。

The United Nations estimates that by the year 2050 roughly 70% of the world's population will be living in highly urbanized areas. This increase in urban living comes with many benefits: sustainable spaces for living, increased flow of ideas and innovation, better proximity to services, and diverse communities. Unfortunately, urban life as it stands is also associated with increased stress, worse physical and mental health, and shorter life expectancy. All of these negative effects alter our physiology, brain, and behavior. By understanding the psychological, neural, and physiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between exposure to nature and cognitive performance, future studies will be able to more easily implement interventions aimed at improving built spaces in order to enhance the potential for human productivity and vitality. This research is guided by Attention Restoration Theory, which posits that incorporating natural elements into the built environment can counteract some of the negatives of urban life. Results from this proposal could be used to help design schools, offices, homes, cities and towns to optimize human functioning.Philosophers, writers, and lay people have had the intuition for centuries that interacting with nature has myriad benefits to human functioning. While this intuition is appealing, it needs rigorous testing. This project aims to identify the mechanisms through which interactions with natural environments might enhance both behavior and brain function, using cutting edge neuroscience, psychophysiological and machine-learning tools. The primary objectives of this research project are the following. First the research will examine the psychological, physiological, and neural processes that are altered during interactions with natural environments. It will address questions such as how hard must the brain work when processing more natural vs. more urban stimuli, and how does this processing affect people's ability to focus. Second, the research will determine some of the characteristics (e.g., low-level visual features such as color, edge content, fractalness, etc.) of natural and urban environments that lead to psychological improvements or decrements. This information will aid understanding of some of the visual features that may be producing these benefits, which could then be used to help design new built spaces or retrofit existing built spaces. Third, the research will test whether individuals who are in more mentally fatigued states will benefit more from natural vs. urban environment exposure. This aspect of the work will help to define the neural and psychophysiological basis of mental fatigue. In summary, this research project aims to understand how interactions with different environments affect human functioning, and what interventions can be made to improve human functioning at large scales.