Nature and the Heart


Mark Berman (Vermillion, UK; S&S/Simon Element, USA)

Mark Berman is on the verge of initiating a transformation, and I consider myself already aligned with his vision. You might have encountered his insights in New Scientist regarding the remarkable advantages of nature walks, the therapeutic impact of plants, and the enchantment of urban greenery.

If this sounds familiar, you may presume that Berman’s Research couldn’t offer anything new. However, you would be mistaken. Nature and the Heart caters to everyone, regardless of prior knowledge. It’s designed not only to inform and entertain but also to motivate action.

This narrative outlines how a once troubled boy forged a groundbreaking field in environmental neuroscience by transitioning from law studies pursued under his mother’s nursing influence and his father’s legal career to engineering as an undergraduate student.

Central to this is a fortuitous encounter between psychologists Steve and Rachel Kaplan from the University of Michigan, who introduced attentional restoration theory (ART). This concept posits that engaging with nature can help regain our focus, and by the time Berman met them as a graduate student, Kaplan had already amassed substantial evidence to support this theory.

Berman’s audacious plan involved quantifying these effects by analyzing people, their environments, and their interactions through methods including brain imaging, behavioral testing, computational neuroscience, and statistical analyses.

In his book, Berman reflects on his initial experimental proposal, met with skepticism from John Jonides, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan, who said, “It’s crazy. It won’t work.”

Yet, Berman persevered, uncovering astonishing findings. A mere 50-minute walk in a park significantly improved individuals’ working memory and attention by 20%, irrespective of their enjoyment of the experience or the weather conditions. Remarkably, it was unnecessary for them to actually walk.

This improvement is notable, but why is attention restoration necessary? As Berman highlights, attention is a crucial resource for many cognitive and emotional functions, and our attention is often drained by an overstimulating environment. By restoring this resource, nature acts as a superpower, enhancing intelligence, happiness, reducing stress, increasing productivity, and fostering compassion.

Some of Berman’s discoveries are breathtaking. For instance, individuals suffering from clinical depression gained fivefold benefits from a walk in the park compared to participants in the original study. Moreover, having ten additional trees on a block in Toronto increased residents’ perception of well-being by 1%.

His research also leads to delightful and innovative findings. In one study, his team employed the JPEG standard in digital image compression to analyze how the human brain processes information regarding natural landscapes versus urban settings. This research demonstrated that urban and natural images with similar complexity levels taxed the brain differently, with nature being less taxing. They even created an app to provide “repair scores” for nearby walking routes.

Berman’s research addresses significant inquiries. How does nature capture attention? What scene elements encourage recovery? How can architecture leverage these effects? It also tackles intriguing questions, such as the allure of galley-style fonts (inspired by the curves of serif typefaces) and the appeal of Jackson Pollock’s abstract paintings (which reflect fractals).

Above all, he is driven by a desire to effect positive change. His work serves as a call to action, urging the implementation of a “natural revolution.” “We should fundamentally reevaluate the design of all constructed spaces,” he advocates. “The natural revolution necessitates a serious commitment from people on a grand scale.”