Medial Prefrontal Cortex fNIRS Activity while Viewing Nature and Urban Scenes: The Search for Neurological Evidence of Nature's Transcendent Self-Diminishment Effect

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychological Science

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Snyder, Haylee V

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jon Barch

• nature
• self-diminishment
• fNIRS
• mPFC
• Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology
• Social Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/832

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1845