The nature effect in motion: visual exposure to environmental scenes impacts cognitive load and human gait kinematics.

ABSTRACT: Prolonged exposure to urban environments requires higher cognitive processing resources than exposure to nature environments, even if only visual cues are available. Here, we explored the moment-to-moment impact of environment type on visual cognitive processing load, measuring gait kinematics and reaction times. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 20) walked toward nature and urban images projected in front of them, one image per walk, and rated each image for visual discomfort. Gait speed and step length decreased for exposure to urban as compared with nature scenes in line with gait changes observed during verbal cognitive load tasks. We teased apart factors that might contribute to cognitive load: image statistics and visual discomfort. Gait changes correlated with subjective rat

SUBMITTER: Burtan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7890511 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature