The roaring sounds of ocean waves have a restorative effect on brain while similar sounding highway traffic can cause stress.

According to latest research human brain connects better to natural environmental scenes than manmade environment.

University of Sheffield researcher Dr. Michael Hunter and colleagues at the Institute of Medicine and Neuroscience at Julich, Germany, carried out functional brain scanning at the University of Sheffield to examine brain activity when people were presented with images of tranquil beach scenes and non-tranquil highway scenes.

Hunter said in a statement that people experience tranquility as a state of calmness and reflection, which is restorative compared with the stressful effects of sustained attention in day-to-day life.

Professor Peter Woodruff of the University of Sheffield says these findings may encourage design more tranquil public spaces and buildings, including hospitals, because it provides a way of measuring the impact of environmental and architectural features on people´s psychological state.

Germany