Optic flow and our stress tolerance

This article is a reaction to the current situation in the world, which is accompanied by elevated stress and anxiety levels throughout our society. Whether it is acute or chronic stress, everyone reacts differently to it, and our stress tolerance is influenced by many factors (for example, genetic, epigenetic, developmental, psychological, or neurochemical). The good news is that - to a certain extent - we have control over our reaction, and we can even deliberately increase our stress resistance. I know that sometimes it is difficult to act rationally when anxiety clouds our thinking. That is why I would like to offer you a simple (yet effective!) way to keep your emotions more under control and improve your stress tolerance. You can employ it immediately. For long-term results, I recommend incorporating this technique in your morning routine. No, it is not meditation. We are speaking about intentional movement through space, so-called forward ambulation, and the resulting optic flow. Inadvertently, we all apply this antistress technique. 

What is optic flow and why it should interest us

We are all familiar with the relaxing effects of mediation. Not everyone can imagine beginning their day with a meditation, though, and for various reasons it is more feasible for them to have a rather dynamic start of the day. A suitable alternative may then be a morning walk. Spending time outdoors has a beneficial effect on both our body and mind. This is confirmed by scientific studies as well as common sense (1). The interesting thing is that by timing when and what we do outside, we can deliberately regulate the activity of different regions of our brain, and thus have better control over our reactions in the upcoming day.

Let’s have a closer look at how it works. A morning walk and the associated movement of our body - forward ambulation - cause a phenomenon called optic flow. According to the Stanford professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology, Andrew Huberman, we experience optic flow whenever we move through space, whether we are walking, running, or driving. And what effect does this have on our brain? It moderates the activity in the part of the brain known as the amygdala. One of the many functions of the amygdala, which you can picture as a sort of an almond in our brain, is to control the automatic reactions associated with fear, anxiety, or threat detection. If we detect an approaching danger in our surroundings, the amygdala tries to protect us by triggering the fight-or-flight response. We may perceive this in the form of increased anxiety or stress. A different stimulus triggers this reaction in each individual - it depends on how reactive we are in relation to our environment. In us women, hormones also play their part.

Many studies have found that moving through space creates optic flow which lowers the activity of said amygdala, thus reducing anxiety. One such study was done on mice. It was shown that mice that moved forward, flitting their eyes from side to side, which is a natural part of this movement, generated optic flow that led to a reduced activity of the amygdala (2). Simply put, the mice became more chilled. Similar conclusions were drawn from studies done on people (3).

So if we decide to go for a morning walk, moving in space can help us reduce feelings of anxiety and induce a feeling of security. At the same time, we improve our ability to stay calm in stressful situations because we are better able to determine what represents a real threat in each moment, and what we can ignore. It is an ideal preparation for the upcoming day which can (and will) bring many unexpected events. It doesn’t matter if you are going to deal with a load of emails or with the declaration of a state of emergency, it is usually better to be perceptive, but not overly reactive to our environment. 

Whether you opt for a meditation session or a walk, the most important thing is to find something that suits you personally.

Action steps

Try to organise your day in a way that permits you to include forward motion in your morning routine. This can mean a 10-minute walk in the park or intentionally parking 3 blocks farther away.

Bibliography:

1. White, M., Alcock, I., Grellier, J., Wheeler, B., Hartig, T., & Warber, S. et al. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific Reports, 9(1). doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3
2. Macé, É., Montaldo, G., Trenholm, S., Cowan, C., Brignall, A., Urban, A., & Roska, B. (2018). Whole-Brain Functional Ultrasound Imaging Reveals Brain Modules for Visuomotor Integration. Neuron, 100(5), 1241-1251.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.11.031
3. de Voogd L.D., Kanen, J.W., Neville, D.A., Roelofs, K., Fernández, G., Hermans, E.J., Eye-Movement Intervention Enhances Extinction via Amygdala Deactivation. (2018). J Neurosci. 2018 Oct 3;38(40):8694-8706. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0703-18.2018. Epub 2018 Sep 4. PMID: 30181134; PMCID: PMC6596227.