Prior research suggests that exposure to nature increases prosociality. One of the theories as to why this happens is that nature can elicit self-diminishment which leads to the positive experience of paying less attention to oneself. To better understand the neural processes behind this, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is related to the self-concept. Participants were shown 12 images divided into four blocks separated by image types. Six were entirely natural scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant), and six were entirely urban scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant). After each image block participants took a brief questionnaire to measure their level of immersion. A Flanker task was used to separate the image blocks after each immersion questionnaire. There was no significant difference in HbT between nature and urban scenes, but a significant main effect of valence was found. Unpleasant stimuli compared to pleasant stimuli were associated with lower average HbT in the mPFC. This might suggest that negative images resulted in more correlates of self-diminishment, however, more research is needed to support this.
","abstract_html":"<p>Prior research suggests that exposure to nature increases prosociality. One of the theories as to why this happens is that nature can elicit self-diminishment which leads to the positive experience of paying less attention to oneself. To better understand the neural processes behind this, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is related to the self-concept. Participants were shown 12 images divided into four blocks separated by image types. Six were entirely natural scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant), and six were entirely urban scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant). After each image block participants took a brief questionnaire to measure their level of immersion. A Flanker task was used to separate the image blocks after each immersion questionnaire. There was no significant difference in HbT between nature and urban scenes, but a significant main effect of valence was found. Unpleasant stimuli compared to pleasant stimuli were associated with lower average HbT in the mPFC. This might suggest that negative images resulted in more correlates of self-diminishment, however, more research is needed to support this.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Snyder, Haylee V"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychological Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Jon Barch"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:36Z","subjects":["nature","self-diminishment","fNIRS","mPFC","Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology","Social Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/832","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Jon Barch"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Snyder, Haylee V"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-04-23T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychological Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["nature","self-diminishment","fNIRS","mPFC","Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology","Social Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/832"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Prior research suggests that exposure to nature increases prosociality. One of the theories as to why this happens is that nature can elicit self-diminishment which leads to the positive experience of paying less attention to oneself. To better understand the neural processes behind this, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is related to the self-concept. Participants were shown 12 images divided into four blocks separated by image types. Six were entirely natural scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant), and six were entirely urban scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant). After each image block participants took a brief questionnaire to measure their level of immersion. A Flanker task was used to separate the image blocks after each immersion questionnaire. There was no significant difference in HbT between nature and urban scenes, but a significant main effect of valence was found. Unpleasant stimuli compared to pleasant stimuli were associated with lower average HbT in the mPFC. This might suggest that negative images resulted in more correlates of self-diminishment, however, more research is needed to support this.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Medial Prefrontal Cortex fNIRS Activity while Viewing Nature and Urban Scenes: The Search for Neurological Evidence of Nature's Transcendent Self-Diminishment Effect"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Jon Barch"],"dc:creator":["Snyder, Haylee V"],"dc:date.available":["2024-04-23T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Prior research suggests that exposure to nature increases prosociality. One of the theories as to why this happens is that nature can elicit self-diminishment which leads to the positive experience of paying less attention to oneself. To better understand the neural processes behind this, this study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is related to the self-concept. Participants were shown 12 images divided into four blocks separated by image types. Six were entirely natural scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant), and six were entirely urban scenes (three pleasant and three unpleasant). After each image block participants took a brief questionnaire to measure their level of immersion. A Flanker task was used to separate the image blocks after each immersion questionnaire. There was no significant difference in HbT between nature and urban scenes, but a significant main effect of valence was found. Unpleasant stimuli compared to pleasant stimuli were associated with lower average HbT in the mPFC. This might suggest that negative images resulted in more correlates of self-diminishment, however, more research is needed to support this.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/832"],"dc:subject":["nature","self-diminishment","fNIRS","mPFC","Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology","Social Psychology"],"dc:title":["Medial Prefrontal Cortex fNIRS Activity while Viewing Nature and Urban Scenes: The Search for Neurological Evidence of Nature's Transcendent Self-Diminishment Effect"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychological Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:36Z"}