How Short Breaks Spent in Nature Promote Executive Function in the Brain

The Science Behind the Power of Brain Breaks in Nature

In the hustle and bustle of our modern lives, where technology constantly demands our attention and stress levels are at all time highs, finding ways to recharge our brain with breaks becomes crucial. 

As scientists, medical practitioners, biohackers, and health-conscious creators we are deeply passionate about the latest studies and techniques to help support the quality of your life. A recent study published in Scientific Reports sheds light on the profound impact of combining nature with brain breaks on attention restoration, offering valuable insights into supporting cognitive well-being. Here’s what you need to know about the power of combining brain breaks with nature.

Key Takeaways

• Engaging in activities that promote "effortless attention" in natural settings can serve as a potent remedy for mental fatigue.
• A 40-min low-intensity walk in nature promotes executive control 
• Finding opportunities to take advantage of natural environments, ideally several times a day provides a necessary break for the brain

A 40 Minute Break in Nature Provides Relief For Your Brain

Modern urban environments have characteristics that can negatively impact our physical, mental, and cognitive health. Artificial light and visual pollution, excessive noise and sound pollution, and overcrowded spaces are all factors that can induce stress and affect our health. But stress is not the only consequence of hectic city environments. Another reason why they can affect us deeply is because they overstimulate our senses and attention and drain our mental energy. Our mental and attentional resources are finite and overstimulation places too high a demand on them, which can deplete them and leave you feeling mentally fatigued. 

Where, then, can we find relief from the cognitive overload of cities and replenish our mental resources? In Nature, naturally. 

In the late 1980s, Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan, researchers from the University of Michigan who specialized on the effect of nature on health and mental well-being, published a book called “The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective,” where they developed the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) describing how spending time in nature can have a restorative effect on our minds. 

The theory postulates that urban environments overload our senses and place constant demand on our attention. These environments require directed attention to select relevant information and ignore irrelevant stimuli. This type of attention is effortful, has limited capacity, and can be depleted, leading to mental fatigue and impairments in executive function. 

Natural environments have restorative benefits that allow us to recover from directed attention fatigue.

Natural environments, on the other hand, have restorative benefits that allow us to recover from directed attention fatigue. While in nature, we’re presented with sights and sounds of trees, animals, creeks, birdsong, clouds, sunsets, and landscapes that we can contemplate with involuntary, effortless attention—a kind of “soft fascination” or awe. This type of attention is resistant to fatigue and allows us to replenish our capacity for directed attention.

Although several studies have supported the beneficial behavioral effects of spending time in nature on mental fatigue, a recent study from the University of Utah aimed to learn more about the neural mechanisms underlying these restorative benefits. 

Attention involves three main elements with specific functions: 1) attention alerting, to arouse us and leave us ready to respond to stimuli; 2) attention orienting, to direct our visuospatial attention and to select and prioritize information from specific locations in the environment; and 3) executive control, higher-level cognitive functions that allow us to switch between tasks and manage competing demands for attention, i.e., focus attention while ignoring distractions.

The study aimed to confirm whether immersion in nature would have a replenishing effect on attention and determine which aspects of attention would be influenced by exposure to nature. To do so, the study used a test called Attention Network Task (ANT) coupled to EEG to assess both behavioral and neural metrics of alerting, orienting, and executive control before and after exposure to nature compared to an urban environment. 

Study participants (ninety-two healthy adults) underwent a cognitive depletion task at the start of testing, after which they completed the ANT while their behavioral performance and EEG signal were recorded. Participants were then divided into two groups: one group went for a 40-min (~ 2-miles) low-intensity walk alone in a natural environment, while the other group went for a similar walk in an urban environment. Participants in the natural environment walked along a trickling creek, through an oak tree tunnel, and around a pond with ducks and a small waterfall. After the walk, each participant completed the ANT again.

At the end of testing, participants answered a Perceived Restorativeness Scale questionnaire to assess how restorative they felt their walk was. The natural environment was perceived as significantly more restorative than the urban environment.

Figure 1. Perceived Restorativeness Scale results. McDonnell & Strayer. Sci Rep, 2024. License: CC BY 4.0

In the behavioral and neural metrics, both groups showed enhanced attention alerting after the walk, indicating that the environment where they walked was not determinant. Rather, this indicated that the exercise associated with the walk itself may have enhanced arousal and freed up available attentional resources. 

Regarding orienting attention, neither group showed changes in either the behavioral or neural index of orienting, possibly because it is not a particularly effortful aspect of attention and is thus less sensitive to being depleted.

Executive control was enhanced only in nature walkers. This indicated that the executive control element of attention was enhanced specifically by walking in nature, rather than by the low-intensity exercise of walking.

Executive control was enhanced only in nature walkers. This indicated that the executive control element of attention was enhanced specifically by walking in nature, rather than by the low-intensity exercise of walking.

Figure 2. Attention network task results and EEG results. McDonnell & Strayer. Sci Rep, 2024. License: CC BY 4.0

In line with the Attention Restoration Theory, this indicated that being in a natural environment allowed the neural mechanisms related to executive control to rest and recuperate, leading to a replenishment of executive control capacity. It showed that walking in nature can offer a respite for the overworked mind and promote cognitive well-being.

The study emphasizes the importance of brief brain breaks throughout the day, especially in natural settings, to help your brain to recharge and allow you to face the cognitive demands of modern living with focus and mental clarity.

Attention restoration is one of the best things to do during a brief break. Being in nature, and practicing effortless attention, such as viewing clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling in a breeze, water bubbling over rocks in a stream, or if inside, looking at a fish tank restores the brain. Find opportunities to take advantage of the natural environments near you, ideally several times a day for a few minutes at a time to recharge the brain.

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Referenced Study

McDonnell AS, Strayer DL. Immersion in nature enhances neural indices of executive attention. Sci Rep, 2024, 14(1):1845. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-52205-1