Here’s a slightly edited email I (Storm Cunningham) received from Viola Follini about the video linked to below:
“I have recently completed a master in Sustainable Cities at King’s College London. For my thesis, I applied neuroscience to urban planning and geography. I analysed the benefits of urban nature on the human brain. My two areas of research were two parks in Milan, Italy, one of which is a newly-regenerated area. It used to be a trade fair and exhibition area that created a lot of congestion. Recently between 2016/17, the area has been redeveloped, and now includes the third biggest park in the centre of Milan and the largest pedestrian area in Italy. My research on it is named ‘The Green Pill’. I applied 3 neuroscientific devices: EEG (electroencephalogram), Eye-tracker and GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) on seven participants. The participants walked around the park as they usually do, without any restrictions or limitations, meanwhile myself with an Italian neuroscientific start-up registered the brain waves that are then associated to mental states, such as relaxation, stress, anxiety. With this research, I was able to quantify the benefits of the new regenerated park on the human brain, and as you would guess, all the results were positive!”