REVIEW article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Natural and Social Sustainability in Urban ForestsView all articles
Effects of Restorative Environments on Mental Health and Its Cognitive Neural Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
- Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
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The well-established improvement effect of restorative environments on mental health has been demonstrated by numerous studies. However, there are relatively few related environmental neuroscience studies. Therefore, regarding the cognitive neural mechanism of the restorative environment in improving mental health, there are still many unknowns. In this article, we conducted a scoping review of the research in this field to map the current evidence base. Firstly, we summarized the main viewpoints of the existing theories and analyzed the limitations of each theory. After integrating the empirical studies on the regulation of mental health by the restorative environment, it was found that exposure to the restorative environment is associated with significant changes in mental health, as well as the cerebral cortex activity, brain structure, and functional connectivity. Based on the current literature, we proposed further suggestions from the aspects of theoretical development, study design, and analysis method.
Keywords: Restorative environment, Mental Health, neural mechanisms, brain network, Nature environment
Received: 22 Jun 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Lin and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wuji Lin, linwuji55555@sicnu.edu.cn
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