New Telegraph

Study ties going for walk outside more mentally beneficial

A team of researchers at the University of Victoria, working with a colleague from York University, both in Canada, has found that going for a short walk outdoors provides people with more mental health benefits than going for asame-lengthwalkinside. The findings of their new study is published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’.

The researchers asked 30 student volunteers to walk indoors or outdoors and tested them before and after their walk. Each of the volunteers took two 15-minute walks, either inside or outside. Each also had electroencephalography exams before and after each walk. During the EEGs, the volunteers performed a standard visual oddball task on an iPad to measure brain activity linked to memory and attention.

To assess whether walking had any impact on mental performance, the researchers used grades on the oddball task and changes in amplitudeof neuralresponse measured using the electroen-cephalography exams. However, they found improvements in response time on the oddball task after walks regardless of where they occurred. But they only found changes in amplitudes, which measure neural response, in those people who had walked outside, the ‘Medical Xpress’ reported.

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