Physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest)--using salivary cortisol and cerebral activity as indicators
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest). The subjects were 12 male students (22.8+/-1.4 yr). On the first day of the experiments, one group of 6 subjects was sent to a forest area, and the other group of 6 subjects was sent to a city area. On the second day, each group was sent to the opposite area for a cross check. In the forenoon, the subjects were asked to walk around their given area for 20 minutes. In the afternoon, they were asked to sit on chairs and watch the landscapes of their given area for 20 minutes. Cerebral activity in the prefrontal area and salivary cortisol were measured as physiological indices in the morning at the place of accommodation, before and after walking in the forest or city areas during the forenoon, and before and after watching the landscapes in the afternoon in the forest and city areas, and in the evening at the place of accommodation. The results indicated that cerebral activity in the prefrontal area of the forest area group was significantly lower than that of the group in the city area after walking; the concentration of salivary cortisol in the forest area group was significantly lower than that of the group in the city area before and after watching each landscape. The results of the physiological measurements show that Shinrin-yoku can effectively relax both people's body and spirit.
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Most evidence of the interaction between exercise and exposure to nature comes from acute observations of single sessions of activity.
“Although the health benefits of exercise and exposure to nature are well established, most evidence of their interaction comes from acute observations of single sessions of activity.”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
The Procedure (page not specified) describes brief, 20-minute walks in forest and city settings, with physiological measurements taken around those activities. This paper is an example of acute evidence on exercise and nature exposure, but it does not assess whether most evidence in the field comes from single-session observations. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPark and colleagues found improvements in psychological and physiological measures of stress when participants walked in, or simply sat and viewed a forest for 20 min, but not city streets.
“Meanwhile, Park and colleagues found improvements in psychological and physiological (e.g., cortisol and heart rate variation) measures of stress when participants walked in, or simply sat and viewed a forest for 20 min, but not city streets [48,49].”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
The Methods and Results (pages not provided) describe 20-minute forest and city walks and seated viewing, with greater comfort and calm after forest exposure, lower prefrontal activity after walking, and lower cortisol around the viewing period. The paper does not report heart-rate variability, which the citing sentence includes as a physiological measure. Cortisol was lower even before viewing, so that result alone does not establish an improvement caused by the 20-minute viewing period. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe protocol for Walking Green imposes a significant participant burden as compared to prior studies in three ways: multiple psychological and physiological outcomes assessed before and after each walk, a 29-day study requiring nine laboratory visits, and up to 3.5 hours per day engaged in the study.
“The protocol for Walking Green imposes a significant participant burden as compared to prior studies in three ways [46,47,48]. First multiple psychological and physiological outcomes were assessed before and after each walk. Second, the entire study lasted 29 days and required nine visits to the laboratory. Finally, participants spent as much as 3.5 hours per day engaged in the study.”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe studies of Berman et al., Bratman et al., and Park et al. compared forested to urban areas with limited or no exposure to greenspace, which may have provided a greater contrast of environments than the present study's locations.
“The studies of Berman et al., [46] Bratman et al., [47] and Park et al. [48] compared forested to urban areas with limited or no exposure to greenspace, which may have provided a greater contrast of environments than our locations.”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
The Procedure and Abstract state that Park et al. compared walking and viewing landscapes in a forest area with the same activities in a city area. The passages do not establish that the city area had limited or no greenspace exposure; the claim's suggested contrast with the citing study's locations is the citing authors' own interpretation. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe walks taken on days 8 and 22 are the first walks that each participant took in each location and thereby provided the most direct comparison to prior studies.
“The walks taken on days 8 and 22 are the first walks that each participant took in each location and thereby provided the most direct comparison to prior studies [46,47,48].”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
The fact that both the forest and roadside walks started from the same location and that the roadside walk took place on a suburban roadside may explain why the differences between the psychological outcomes for roadside and forest walk were attenuated as compared to other studies.
“The fact that both the forest and roadside walks started from the same location, the parking lot of the Forest Preserve, and the fact that the roadside walk took place on a suburban roadside, may also explain why the differences between the psychological outcomes for roadside and forest walk were attenuated as compared to other studies [46,47,48,59].”
From Walking Green: Developing an Evidence Base for Nature Prescriptions (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Park, B.-J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani, T., Hirano, H., Kagawa, T., Sato, M., & Miyazaki, Y.
- Affiliations
- Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (JP)
- Chiba Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center Forest Research Institute (JP)
- Nagasaki Junior College (JP)
- Venue
- Journal of PHYSIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
- Published
- 2007
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 123-128
- ISSN
- 1880-6791 (ISSN-L)
- 1880-6805
- OpenAlex
- W2089295228
- Cited by
- 397
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 5.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of PHYSIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (16107007)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Urban Green Space and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Keywords
- forest bathing, forest atmosphere, salivary cortisol, prefrontal cortex activation, brain activity, relaxation, physiological stress response
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Atmosphere, Environment, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Psychophysiology, Relaxation Therapy, Saliva, Stress, Physiological, Trees, Walking
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