A Good Walk: Eye Movements, Heart Rates, and the Science of Serenity

Step into a garden, and your body begins a silent conversation with nature. The air may smell faintly of jasmine, the leaves may rustle in a breeze, but something more profound happens beneath your awareness: your nervous system exhales.

In a recent study, researchers explored what happens when individuals simply sit in a garden for ten minutes. Heart rate decreased, dialing down “fight or flight,” allowing “rest and digest” to take over. The study’s takeaway is simple: exposure to natural environments triggers a biologically measurable state of relaxation. In a world buzzing with cortisol and caffeine, a ten-minute rendezvous with greenery may be the gentlest form of medicine.

Japanese observation gardens are traditionally meant for contemplation from a fixed viewpoint, often promoting a calming, meditative experience. This study uses Murin-an as the “treatment” garden, a historic Kyoto landmark built in 1894. Visitors view a landscape from the villa’s central room that skillfully incorporates a zig-zagging stream, manicured plantings, and open sightlines to promote a balanced, tranquil aesthetic. The garden is well maintained, with pruned trees, controlled spatial layers, and unobstructed views, enhancing its visual coherence and calming effect.

As a control, the researchers used an outdoor space within Kyoto University, containing similar elements (stream, pines, rocks, a bridge) but without an overall design aesthetic. As with other heavily trafficked shared spaces, it suffers from human disarray. Enclosed by buildings rather than trees, the space lacks Murin-an’s harmony.

Our physiological response to the environment can now be studied with imaging technology tracking our eye movements. This allowed the researchers to focus on visual fixation points, fixation times, the speed and direction of our eye shifts, and the specific features of the gardens that garnered our interest. 

Sixteen undergraduate students aged 21 and 24 participated in the study. After being fitted with non-invasive visual tracking gear and allowing an interval to “rest,” the participants view Murin-an and the Kyoto University “garden” for seven minutes. 

• Participants primarily focused on the center of both gardens
• The average number of fixation points was essentially the same.
• The fixation points in the Kyoto University “garden” were more centralized, both left to right (breadth) and front to back (depth). Murin-an fixations points were more distributed in breadth and depth.
• Neither the size nor type of object determined focus, only their spatial position within the gardens

Not Just A Pretty View

Visitors didn’t just see the difference between the two gardens; they had different physiologic and emotional responses. During the 7-minute viewing, the average heart rate viewing the Kyoto University garden rose slightly, while the heart rate steadily decreased over the interval while viewing Murin-an. Participants overwhelmingly preferred the Murin-an garden, reporting significantly higher levels of enjoyment, relaxation, and a desire to return compared to the Kyoto University “garden.” These impressions weren’t just anecdotal; mood assessments revealed that Murin-an consistently reduced negative emotions like anger, confusion, and depression more effectively than its counterpart. While neither garden significantly boosted positive emotions like vigor or friendliness, only Murin-an showed a clear overall improvement in emotional well-being. Murin-an was a mood-altering.

The researchers initially felt eye tracking would identify specific elements within these structured gardens underpinning our neurobiological response. Instead, they found the pattern of visual engagement, the gentle sweeping rhythm of how viewers took in the entire landscape.

That gentle sweep brings to mind eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a technique using eye motions, either by following the therapist’s finger or voluntarily moving your gaze from side to side, coupled with recollection of specific, often traumatic memories, to reduce stress. EMDR is considered by many to be the first-line treatment for PTSD. Its exact neurophysiologic pathway remains unknown. 

What is known is that we can exert some control over our nearly autonomous fight or flight and rest and digest by our breathing patterns and eye movements, as we see in EMDR and the current study. While cautioning that it is too early to fully embrace the analogy, there is “alignment” between EMDR and their observations concerning gaze. No one feature of the garden was “restful” it was the totality of the design as described by our eye movements. 

The lesson is simple yet profound: our bodies recognize harmony even before we’re conscious of it. The Murin-an garden didn’t just outperform its urban counterpart in aesthetics. Using the choreography of our gaze it altered heart rates and mood states. While not quite therapy, the study offers a tantalizing hint that nature’s design, getting back to our evolutionary niche, may still calm modern minds, one peaceful glance at a time.

So take a hike. Or sit beneath a tree. Or wander through a garden path with no particular destination. Your nervous system is waiting to exhale.

Source: Eye Movement Patterns Drive Stress Reduction during Japanese Garden Viewing Frontiers in Neuroscience DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1581080