{"doi":"10.31234/osf.io/txewf_v1","title":"Nature is nurture: a pilot study of neural correlates of healthy cognition and environmental predictors in children attending a nature-based public school","abstract":"Though the physical health benefits of childhood nature exposure are well-documented, the specific mechanisms linking nature and healthy cognitive development remain underexplored. One promising tool for investigating novel biological pathways is via mobile neuroimaging techniques, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which can be collected in naturalistic settings. The current pilot study uses fNIRS, cognitive task data, and survey-based measures of well-being and environmental exposures in a sample of children attending a nature-based school at the start of the academic year, and tests the feasibility of collecting fNIRS-based metrics of healthy neurocognition in situ. Fifteen children between the ages of 8 and 13 participated in the fNIRS sessions, and activation in the prefrontal cortex was successfully demonstrated during a 1-back working memory task for older children, but not younger children, who struggled to do the task. Importantly, the study enabled the measurement of a novel brain-based biomarker of healthy cognition (the Hurst exponent, H). In line with prior research showing that H is associated with better psychological well-being, we found that higher H was indeed correlated with lower psychological stress and better performance on a cognitive flexibility task. Additionally, H was higher for those who engaged in more physical activity and with more neighborhood greenspace access, highlighting a potential novel mechanism linking nature exposure, exercise, and psychological well-being in childhood.","journal":null,"year":2025,"id":576916,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9546,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1485716,"name":"Amanda Seccia","orcid":"0000-0003-1877-594X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1486166,"name":"Kristine Hocker","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1486167,"name":"Kate Duffy-Greslo","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1485717,"name":"Tiara Rose Freeman","orcid":"0000-0002-1320-8877","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1486168,"name":"Sanaz Dorri Sedeh","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1486169,"name":"Kris De la Torre","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1486170,"name":"Sarah Elizabeth Ippel","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":305562,"name":"Marc G. Berman","orcid":"0000-0002-7087-3697","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434388,"name":"Amber L. Fyfe‐Johnson","orcid":"0000-0002-1706-9982","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1373091,"name":"Kimberly Lewis Meidenbauer","orcid":"0000-0001-9135-6130","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:00.620755Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}