Date of Award
5-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Psychological Science
Program
Psychological Science (MS)
First Advisor/Chairperson
Jon Barch
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.
Recommended Citation
Snyder, Haylee V., "Medial Prefrontal Cortex fNIRS Activity while Viewing Nature and Urban Scenes: The Search for Neurological Evidence of Nature's Transcendent Self-Diminishment Effect" (2024). All NMU Master's Theses. 832.
https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/832
Access Type
Open Access