Essays and Etcetera

New studies are coming out all the time which claim to prove this or that point. Some studies “prove” things which were obvious to most of us. Other studies prove less than the authors of the study think. And in some studies the results are debatable but since the results fit in with our own opinions we accept them as authoritative. Studies here, studies there, studies everywhere. Studies are too often considered far more definitive on a subject than a dispassionate analysis would give credence. The truth is that studies often tell us much more about the person undertaking the study, or the people interpreting the study, than they do about the thing being studied.

I typically have a cynical view toward studies. But every so often one comes around that fits right in with my pet theories, and “proves” my opinions. I recently stumbled upon a study that does just that. I vehemently prefer country living to living in the city. And now a study has come out which proves that country living is far more healthy and wholesome.

All jesting aside, the results are truly interesting, and they might change how you view where and how you live–whether that is in the city or country.

I discovered this study in the Boston Globe⁽¹⁾. What follows are some excerpts from the article.

Now 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.

Rather startling assertion, isn’t it?

It continues,

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.

Of course, as much as we all like to claim that we objectively consider what a study presents, all of us are influenced by whether we feel a study accurately reflects what we have experienced for ourselves. On that metric, I found the following statement to very much reflect my own experiences:

Consider everything your brain has to keep track of as you walk down a busy thoroughfare like Newbury Street. There are the crowded sidewalks full of distracted pedestrians who have to be avoided; the hazardous crosswalks that require the brain to monitor the flow of traffic. (The brain is a wary machine, always looking out for potential threats.) There’s the confusing urban grid, which forces people to think continually about where they’re going and how to get there.

The reason such seemingly trivial mental tasks leave us depleted is that they exploit one of the crucial weak spots of the brain. A city is so overstuffed with stimuli that we need to constantly redirect our attention so that we aren’t distracted by irrelevant things, like a flashing neon sign or the cellphone conversation of a nearby passenger on the bus. This sort of controlled perception — we are telling the mind what to pay attention to — takes energy and effort. The mind is like a powerful supercomputer, but the act of paying attention consumes much of its processing power.

Perhaps it is because I don’t live in the city and don’t spend much time in the city, or perhaps it is because of how my brain is wired, but whatever the reason I really notice struggling with the above mentioned things when I am in the city. I feel like there is too much I need to be keeping track of, and too often I find myself paying attention to the unimportant things. I am not good at ignoring things, and if you are to survive in the city you must perfect the art of ignoring. You can’t ponder the information on every passing sign. You can’t stop and really notice every pedestrian. And heaven help you if you happen to wander off in your own thoughts while out and about in the city. As it says later in the study, “While the human brain possesses incredible computational powers, it’s surprisingly easy to short-circuit: all it takes is a hectic city street.” That would be me.

The study goes on:

Natural settings, in contrast, don’t require the same amount of cognitive effort. This idea is known as attention restoration theory, or ART, and it was first developed by Stephen Kaplan, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. While it’s long been known that human attention is a scarce resource — focusing in the morning makes it harder to focus in the afternoon — Kaplan hypothesized that immersion in nature might have a restorative effect.

Imagine a walk around Walden Pond, in Concord. The woods surrounding the pond are filled with pitch pine and hickory trees. Chickadees and red-tailed hawks nest in the branches; squirrels and rabbits skirmish in the berry bushes. Natural settings are full of objects that automatically capture our attention, yet without triggering a negative emotional response — unlike, say, a backfiring car. The mental machinery that directs attention can relax deeply, replenishing itself.

Perhaps most interesting is what the study concluded was the most beneficial natural environment.

However, these savannah-like parks are actually the least beneficial for the brain. In a recent paper, Richard Fuller, an ecologist at the University of Queensland, demonstrated that the psychological benefits of green space are closely linked to the diversity of its plant life. When a city park has a larger variety of trees, subjects that spend time in the park score higher on various measures of psychological well-being, at least when compared with less biodiverse parks.

“We worry a lot about the effects of urbanization on other species,” Fuller says. “But we’re also affected by it. That’s why it’s so important to invest in the spaces that provide us with some relief.”

When a park is properly designed, it can improve the function of the brain within minutes. As the Berman study demonstrates, just looking at a natural scene can lead to higher scores on tests of attention and memory. While people have searched high and low for ways to improve cognitive performance, from doping themselves with Red Bull to redesigning the layout of offices, it appears that few of these treatments are as effective as simply taking a walk in a natural place.

Again, this reflects my own personal experience. Not only does this study reflect my own experience out in the natural world, but it also fits with how I handle the un-natural environment. I find I have a need for, and appreciation of, windows. When inside I prefer to always be able to look out a window at a natural environment. If I want to think or relax, I find I will often walk over to a window to stare out and I find it is much better to stare at a landscape of trees, rolling hills, and the sky than a next door house or parking lot. In particular I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, and I find it makes an immeasurably better working environment if my computer is positioned in such a way that I can easily glance out at some country scene. Before I used to think about how much I got distracted meditating on the chicken yard out the window, or the far distant hills. But now I’ve come to a better appreciation that such meditating is not time wasted. It is time well spent not only resting my eyes from staring at the glare of the computer screen, but it is also a time for my mind to be refreshed as my thoughts wander hither and yon.

So what about you? Do you find this study reflects your own experience with nature and city life? And if you find any of the points to be true, will it affect how you live your life?

Some things to ponder whether you live in the city or country.
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(1) http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/how_the_city_hurts_your_brain/?page=full