Interplay among Anxiety, Digital Environmental Exposure, and Cognitive Control: Implications of Natural Settings.

Go/No-Go anxiety cognitive control forest therapy natural exposition response inhibition

Journal

Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
ISSN: 2076-328X
Titre abrégé: Behav Sci (Basel)
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101576826

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
13 Apr 2024
Historique:
received: 19 02 2024
revised: 04 04 2024
accepted: 11 04 2024
medline: 26 4 2024
pubmed: 26 4 2024
entrez: 26 4 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Inhibitory control performance may differ greatly as a function of individual differences such as anxiety. Nonetheless, how cognitive control proficiency might be influenced by exposure to various environments and how anxiety traits might impact these effects remain unexplored. A cohort of thirty healthy volunteers participated in the study. Participants performed a Go/No-Go task before exposure to a 'forest' and 'urban' virtual environment, in a counterbalanced design, before repeating the GNG task. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was finally filled-in. Our findings unveiled an initial negative correlation between anxiety trait levels and GNG task performance, consistent with the established literature attributing difficulties in inhibitory functionality to anxiety. Additionally, different environmental exposures reported opposite trends. Exposure to the 'forest' environment distinctly improved the GNG performance in relation to anxiety traits, while the 'urban' setting demonstrated adverse effects on task performance. These results underscore the intricate relationship among cognitive control, environmental exposure, and trait anxiety. In particular, our findings highlight the potential of natural settings, such as forests, to mitigate the impact of anxiety on inhibition. This might have implications for interventions aimed at improving cognitive control.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38667119
pii: bs14040323
doi: 10.3390/bs14040323
pii:
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Auteurs

Viola Benedetti (V)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Fiorenza Giganti (F)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Maria Cotugno (M)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Chiara Noferini (C)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.
European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy.

Gioele Gavazzi (G)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Giorgio Gronchi (G)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Stefania Righi (S)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Francesco Meneguzzo (F)

Institute of Bioeconomy, National Research Council, 10 Via Madonna del Piano, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy.
Central Scientific Committee, Italian Alpine Club, 19 Via E. Petrella, 20124 Milano, Italy.

Francesco Riccardo Becheri (FR)

Pian dei Termini Forest Therapy Station, 51028 San Marcello Piteglio, Italy.

Qing Li (Q)

Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine-Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan.

Maria Pia Viggiano (MP)

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.

Classifications MeSH