Trees for Brains

Kuhn and colleagues report that “Previous research has suggested an association between living environment during the first 15 years of life and brain structure. More precisely, urbanicity during upbringing has been shown to be negatively related to prefrontal cortex grey matter. The present study focusses instead on the current living environment of 677 younger adults [about 22 years old] recruited from different cities across Europe. We observed a positive association between amount of tree cover density, in a radius of 500m around the current home address and grey matter volume in left orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC). Of note, the volume of the lOFC cluster identified, showed a positive association with cognitive performance in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, namely in the verbal and spatial ability domain (Block Design), and a negative association with both, self-reported and behavioural markers of impulsivity (delay discounting). Moreover, IOFC cluster volume showed a negative association with self-reported alcohol use problems.”

Simone Kuhn and 26 others. “Trees for Brains: Current Residential Tree Cover Density and Its Association with Brain Structure in Young Adults.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenv.2023.102047