A recent pilot study by researchers at the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences and Lund University explored whether a virtual nature environment can have the same positive effects on health as the real thing. Participants exposed simultaneously to sounds of nature and a visual representation of nature exhibited physiological signs of recovery following a stress stimulus. More research is needed to explore the implications of these findings for everyday life.
Pilot study on effects of virtual environment
We already know that green environments have a positive effect on recovery from stress, but it is only recently that scientists have explored the possibility of achieving the same result on a virtual basis. In a recent collaborative study between the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences (SLU)and the faculty of engineering at Lund University, researchers explored the idea that stress recovery could be facilitated in a virtual green environment and even more so if nature sounds were added to that environment.
The pilot study involved 30 men of Swedish origin. A reaction was triggered in all participants by exposure to a virtual stress stimulus before they were assigned to one of three groups.
The first group experienced a recovery setting that included a virtual nature environment and exposure to nature sounds. The second group experienced the same virtual nature environment without sound. The third group was a control group who were left to recover in a simple, silent setting with no stimulus from either nature sound or a virtual nature environment.
The virtual ‘nature’ experienced by two thirds of the test participants consisted of a leafy forest with a path leading to a purling river (a river with a swirling flow and a babbling sound). Images were projected on the walls and floor of the room with the help of a three-dimensional technique. Participants spent 15 minutes in this virtual environment.
The sounds heard by a third of the test participants were pre-recorded and included the twittering of birds and the silent whooshing of water.
Participants’ saliva and heart rate were examined regularly throughout the test to register their stress levels.
Promising results
The preliminary results from this as yet unpublished study found a significant effect on recovery from virtually induced stress when sound and visual inputs were used simultaneously. This interactive effect contributed to an increased activity among the test participants in this group in the parasympathetic nervous system (part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for the unconscious regulation of internal organs and glands). In practice, this means that:
- cardiac activity and the level of stress hormones decrease;
- blood pressure drops;
- the level of oxytocin increases (oxytocin is a hormone that acts in the brain to, among things, reduce fear).
Those in the group that recovered with only the virtual nature environment as stimulus and those in the control group showed no specific autonomic stimulation. No support was therefore found for the hypothesis that a sound-free virtual environment could promote recovery from stress.
Fields of application – improved work environment?
The idea for this experiment came after an SLU study had shown that people with burnout healed better when they lived for a time in a green environment. The question was posed: can a virtual forest provide the same effect? The pilot study results suggest that it can. The question now is how these results can help to improve stress levels in the workplace.
In an online article from the Swedish work environment organisation, Prevent, one of the researchers from Lund University who took part in the pilot study writes that it is not impossible that workplaces could eventually benefit from these results: ‘A portable virtual forest at work in which to de-stress? Why not?’ (Eldh, 2011). However, another member of the team, Matilda Annerstedt (a PhD student at SLU), points out that pictures and photographs of green environments and nature are not a sufficient substitute for the actual thing. Matilda said:
I believe that the greatest value of this study is for further research and expansion, refined studies, in order to come closer to the answer on what types of mechanisms lie behind nature’s beneficial effects.
(Personal communication, October 2011)
The implications for working life from the study’s results are not the researchers’ priority. Even so, the chances are that findings on nature’s favourable impact on the human body will be beneficial for employees at stressful workplaces as well as for society at large. Perhaps one day the use of virtual experiences can be used preventively to avoid rising stress levels in the first place.
Commentary
The study has not yet been published and provides only preliminary results of the positive effects of a virtual environment. It is also based on very small group of test participants. However, the research team has identified a very interesting topic for further research. The finding that the artificial twittering of birds and purling water reduces stress hormones could eventually be useful in the workplace in handling stress, burnout and sick leave. But it remains to be seen if it can also prevent rising stress levels. Further studies are needed to determine how the study’s findings can be applied in everyday life.
Reference
Eldh, M. (2011), Mindre stress med virtuell skog på jobbet, Arbetsliv, 12 September 2011.
Mats Kullander and Kina Lundqvist, Oxford Research