Nutrition is associated with differences in multisensory integration in healthy older adults.

Diet can influence cognitive functioning in older adults and is a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. However, it is unknown if an association exists between diet and lower-level processes in the brain underpinning cognition, such as multisensory integration. We investigated whether temporal multisensory integration is associated with daily intake of fruit and vegetables (FV) or products high in fat/sugar/salt (FSS) in a large sample (N = 2,693) of older adults (mean age = 64.06 years, SD = 7.60; 56% female) from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Older adults completed a Food Frequency Questionnaire from which the total number of daily servings of FV and FSS items respectively was calculated. Older adults' susceptibility to the Sound Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) measured the temporal precision of audio-visual integration, which included three audio-visual Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOAs): 70, 150 and 230 ms. Older adults who self-reported a higher daily consumption of FV were less susceptible to the SIFI at the longest versus shortest SOAs (i.e. increased temporal precision) compared to those reporting the lowest daily consumption (p = .013). In contrast, older adults reporting a higher daily consumption of FSS items were more susceptible to the SIFI at the longer versus shortest SOAs (i.e. reduced temporal precision) compared to those reporting the lowest daily consumption (p < .001). The temporal precision of multisensory integration is differentially associated with levels of daily consumption of FV versus products high in FSS, consistent with broader evidence that habitual diet is associated with brain health.

Postgraduate education in healthy and active ageing: a systematic scoping review of learning needs, curricula and learning impact.

To inform a new European-based online master's programme in active aging and age-friendly society, a scoping review was performed to identify previously reported learning needs and learning outcomes on this topic. Four electronic databases (PubMed, EBSCO [Academic Search Complete], Scopus, and ASSIA) were systematically searched, along with gray literature. Dual, independent review of an initial 888 studies led to 33 included papers which underwent independent data extraction and reconciliation. Just 18.2% of studies employed a student survey or similar to determine learning needs, with the majority reporting educational intervention objectives, learning outcomes or curriculum content. Main study topics were intergenerational learning (36.4%), age-related design (27.3%), health (21.2%), attitudes toward aging (6.1%), and collaborative learning (6.1%). This review found limited literature on student learning needs in healthy and active aging. Future research should elucidate student- and other stakeholder-determined learning needs, with robust evaluation of post-education skills, attitudes, and practice change.

Learning needs in healthy and active aging according to key stakeholders: a multinational survey.

Healthy and active aging and age-friendly society frameworks attempt to address the well-documented challenges and opportunities of population aging. To meet the needs of an increasingly older society, there is a demand for professionals with appropriate age-related knowledge and skills. To this end, a master's in active aging is in development. This study reports on the consultation with prospective students, employers, older people and academics on the knowledge areas to be included in the course. An anonymous online survey gathered data from stakeholders in Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal, Finland, and Greece. Participants ranked the importance of 14 broad knowledge areas and linked topics. The influence of participant characteristics on decisions was examined using multivariate regression modeling. Across all stakeholder groups (total sample N = 757), health promotion was most often deemed very important (80%), followed by psychology (73%), and social inclusion and engagement (71%). Potential students from healthcare backgrounds were more interested than others in aging physiology, social aspects, and the physical environment. More western-located European countries overall showed more enthusiasm for the topics presented, additional to regional variations between topics. This learning needs analysis provides multi-stakeholder insights into priorities regarding learning in healthy and active aging and age-friendly society.

Regulatory focus and perceptions of ageing: exploring the connections.

Objectives:Perceptions of ageing can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for older adults, with those who hold more negative views of ageing experiencing more negative consequences of the ageing process, including poorer health and cognitive declines. Exposure to negative stereotypes about their group can also affect older adults performance in cognitive tests, as they are more likely to adopt a prevention focus to avoid mistakes, therefore, performing poorly in tasks requiring them to adopt a gains-oriented focus. Based on regulatory focus theory, we hypothesised that negative perceptions of ageing and stereotype threat may be connected, specifically we hypothesised that those with more negative perceptions of ageing would also have a stronger trait prevention focus.Method: Two hundred adults aged 60+ took part in an online questionnaire examining their perceptions of ageing and their trait regulatory focus.Results and Conclusion: Results indicated that negative perceptions of ageing were predictive of a stronger trait prevention focus in a hierarchical multiple regression model. This provides evidence that older adults with more negative perceptions of ageing may adopt a stronger prevention focus, potentially influencing psychological attitudes to everyday tasks and behaviours. Perceptions of ageing and regulatory focus can have implications for the efficacy of health messaging for older adults.

Social factors may mediate the relationship between subjective age-related hearing loss and episodic memory.

Objectives: To investigate whether the relationship between subjective age-related hearing loss (SARHL) and episodic memory functioning is mediated by measures of social functioning.Methods: Using data from 8,163 adults over 50 that participated in the Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (three waves, each two years apart), we used a multiple mediation model within a Structural Equation Modelling framework to explore potential social mediators of the relationship between SARHL and episodic memory functioning, controlling for demographic and health covariates.Results: Neither the direct effect of self-reported hearing difficulties on memory functioning (ß = -.03), nor the total effect (ß = .01), were significant. A small inconsistent indirect effect of self-reported hearing difficulties on episodic memory via weekly social activity engagement (ß = -.002) was found.Conclusions: Self-reported hearing difficulties may exert an indirect effect on episodic memory via weekly social activity engagement. The findings may have implications for identification of individuals at risk of memory decline in later life.

Parenting Stress During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Socioeconomic and Environmental Risk Factors and Implications for Children Emotion Regulation.

The COVID-19 outbreak imposed to Italian families many changes in their daily life increasing the risk of developing psychological problems. The present study explored risk factors associated with parenting stress and implications for children's emotion regulation in families with different socioeconomic risks. Parents of 2-14 years old children completed a survey reporting difficulties experienced due to the lockdown, level of household chaos, parenting stress, parent involvement in the child's daily life, and children emotion regulation competences. The general mean levels of parenting stress and children emotion regulation abilities were not at clinical level compared with Italian norms. Household chaos predicted higher levels of parenting stress, which, in turn, was associated with less effective emotion regulation in children through the mediating role of parental involvement. More stressed parents were less involved in their children's activities, decreasing children's effective emotion regulation. Only for SES no-risk families, the lockdown constraints increased parenting stress. For SES at-risk families, the impact of parenting stress and involvement on children regulation strategies was stronger, with a protective role played by parental involvement on children's negativity not evident for SES no-risk families. Dealing with the lockdown is a stressful experience for parents who have to balance personal life, work, and children upbringing, without other help. This situation potentially impairs their ability to be supportive caregivers and is consequently detrimental for children well-being. Policies should take into consideration the implications of the lockdown for families' mental health and tailor supportive interventions according to family's risk factors.

El brote de la COVID-19 impuso a las familias italianas muchos cambios en su vida cotidiana, los cuales aumentaron el riesgo de desarrollar problemas psicológicos. El presente estudio analizó los factores de riesgo asociados con el estrés de la crianza y las consecuencias para la regulación emocional de los hijos en familias con diferentes riesgos socioeconómicos. Un grupo de padres de niños de entre dos y 14 años contestó una encuesta donde informó las dificultades vividas debido al confinamiento, el nivel de caos en el hogar, el estrés en la crianza, la participación de los padres en la vida diaria de los hijos y las competencias de los hijos para regular sus emociones. Los niveles promedio generales de estrés en la crianza y las habilidades de regulación emocional en los niños no estuvieron a nivel clínico en comparación con las normas italianas. El caos en el hogar predijo niveles más altos de estrés en la crianza, el cual, a su vez, estuvo asociado con una menor regulación emocional eficaz en los niños mediante el rol mediador de la participación de los padres. Los padres más estresados participaron menos en las actividades de sus hijos, lo cual disminuyó la regulación emocional eficaz en los niños. Solo en los casos de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico las limitaciones del confinamiento aumentaron el estrés en la crianza. Para las familias de riesgo socioeconómico, el efecto del estrés en la crianza y la participación en las estrategias de regulación emocional de los niños fue más profundo, y en el caso de las familias sin riesgo socioeconómico, no se evidenció el papel protector desempeñado por la participación de los padres en la negatividad de los niños. Lidiar con el confinamiento es una experiencia estresante para los padres que tienen que compatibilizar la vida personal, el trabajo y la educación de los niños sin ninguna otra ayuda. Esta situación puede deteriorar su capacidad de ser cuidadores comprensivos y, como consecuencia, ser perjudicial para el bienestar de los niños. Las políticas deberían tener en cuenta las consecuencias del confinamiento en la salud mental de las familias y adaptar intervenciones de apoyo de acuerdo con los factores de riesgo de las familias.

Sometimes Nature Doesn't Work: Absence of Attention Restoration in Older Adults Exposed to Environmental Scenes.

Background/Study Context: An accumulating body of literature indicates that contact with natural settings can benefit health and wellbeing. Numerous studies support Attention Restoration Theory (ART), which suggests that even short exposure to nature, as opposed to urban environments, can promote attention restoration by stimulating soft fascination. However, it is unclear whether the restorative effects hold in aging. This study tested nature effect on cognitive restoration in older people. Methods: Utilizing the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), we explored changes in attentional performance in 75 healthy older individuals before and after exposure to either natural or urban scenes. We checked for age-related differences by comparing the older sample to a group of 21 young participants. Results: We found no effects of environmental exposure for either attentional accuracy, sensitivity to visual targets or reaction times. Our older participants had worse accuracy and slower reaction times than a younger control group who used the same paradigm. Conclusion: The results of our study conducted with older adults show no attention restoration effects in this population. Potential geographical/cultural moderators as wells as methodological considerations are discussed to provide insights for future studies on cognitive restoration in older age.

A standing posture is associated with increased susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion in fall-prone older adults.

Recent research has provided evidence suggesting a link between inefficient processing of multisensory information and incidence of falling in older adults. Specifically, Setti et al. (Exp Brain Res 209:375-384, 2011) reported that older adults with a history of falling were more susceptible than their healthy, age-matched counterparts to the sound-induced flash illusion. Here, we investigated whether balance control in fall-prone older adults was directly associated with multisensory integration by testing susceptibility to the illusion under two postural conditions: sitting and standing. Whilst standing, fall-prone older adults had a greater body sway than the age-matched healthy older adults and their body sway increased when presented with the audio-visual illusory but not the audio-visual congruent conditions. We also found an increase in susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion during standing relative to sitting for fall-prone older adults only. Importantly, no performance differences were found across groups in either the unisensory or non-illusory multisensory conditions across the two postures. These results suggest an important link between multisensory integration and balance control in older adults and have important implications for understanding why some older adults are prone to falling.

The association between sensory processing and stress in the adult population: A systematic review.

There is emerging empirical evidence indicating that differences in self-reported sensory processing may be associated with differences in levels of stress in the adult populations. Understanding how sensory processing relates to stress is of clinical relevance, given the well-established impact of stress on physical health, mental health and well-being. Although several studies have examined the association between sensory processing and stress in adult populations, no published reviews have systematically summarised and synthesised these findings. We aimed to fill this gap by conducting a systematic review to synthesise the available evidence examining the association between self-reported sensory processing and self-reported measures of stress in the adult population. The review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-S) checklist. Twenty studies were included in the final review. Quality assessment was conducted with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Overall, the evidence is strong for an association between differences in sensory processing and self-reported stress in adults. This association was found across a range of populations and measures of stress, in cross-sectional studies. The most commonly used measure of sensory processing was the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, which was consistently moderately associated with a range of measures of stress. The quality of the included studies was generally good, with most meeting four or five out of five criteria. Longitudinal studies are lacking. There is strong evidence for a cross-sectional association between sensory processing and stress in an adult population. Further research, in particular longitudinal studies and studies including clinical populations, would be of benefit in order to establish causality.

Ability to Process Multisensory Information Is Impaired in Open Angle Glaucoma.

PRCIS: Patients with glaucoma demonstrated deficiencies in their ability to process multisensory information when compared with controls, with those deficiencies being related to glaucoma severity. Impaired multisensory integration (MSI) may affect the quality of life in individuals with glaucoma and may contribute to the increased prevalence of falls and driving safety concerns. Therapeutic possibilities to influence cognition in glaucoma should be explored. PURPOSE: Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease of the optic nerve that has also been linked to cognitive health decline. This study explored MSI as a function of glaucoma status and severity. METHODS: MSI was assessed in 37 participants with open angle glaucoma relative to 18 age-matched healthy controls. The sound-induced flash illusion was used to assess MSI efficiency. Participants were presented with various combinations of simultaneous visual and/or auditory stimuli and were required to indicate the number of visual stimuli observed for each of the 96 total presentations. Central retinal sensitivity was assessed as an indicator of glaucoma severity (MAIA; CenterVue). RESULTS: Participants with glaucoma performed with equivalent capacity to healthy controls on unisensory trials ( F1,53 =2.222, P =0.142). Both groups performed equivalently on congruent multisensory trials involving equal numbers of auditory and visual stimuli F1,53 =1.032, P =0.314). For incongruent presentations, that is, 2 beeps and 1 flash stimulus, individuals with glaucoma demonstrated a greater influence of the incongruent beeps when judging the number of flashes, indicating less efficient MSI relative to age-matched controls ( F1,53 =11.45, P <0.002). In addition, MSI performance was positively correlated with retinal sensitivity ( F3,49 =4.042, P <0.025), adjusted R ²=0.15). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with open angle glaucoma exhibited MSI deficiencies that relate to disease severity. The type of deficiencies observed were similar to those observed among older individuals with cognitive impairment and balance issues. Impaired MSI may, therefore, be relevant to the increased prevalence of falls observed among individuals with glaucoma, a concept that merits further investigation.

Is a sex difference in audio-visual temporal precision consistent across age groups? An update on Hernández et al. (2019).

Hernández et al. (2019) previously reported independent age and sex differences in temporal audio-visual integration in a large national cohort of older adults. Susceptibility to the sound induced flash illusion (SIFI) at long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) increased with age and was stronger in older adult females than males. However, it is unclear if this sex difference is stable across age. We reanalyzed the data set used by Hernández et al. (2019) on SIFI performance from 3,479 older adults (Mage = 64.20 years, SD = 7.77, range = 50-93; 56% female) across three age groups (50-64, 65-74, and 75+ years), drawn from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. For the 70 ms SOA, females were less susceptible to the SIFI than males, irrespective of age. At longer SOAs (150 ms and 230 ms), females aged 50-64 years but not older were more susceptible to the SIFI than age-matched males. These findings extend those of Hernández et al. (2019) by indicating that age and sex can collectively influence the precision of multisensory integration exhibited by older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Experience of Being Fall-Prone and Participating in Research: Fallers' Perspectives.

The importance of giving a voice to groups considered hard-to-reach for research purposes is becoming increasingly apparent, with insights into their experience having the potential to improve research participation. Fall-prone older adults are a cohort underrepresented in research, often excluded in large-scale research and considered difficult to recruit. This study aims to explore older fallers' experiences of being fall-prone and participating in research. Seven older fallers (4 males, aged 69-88) participated in semi-structured telephone interviews following participation in an experimental research project. Interviews explored participants' personal experience of being fall-prone and participating in research. The resulting data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Three primary themes emerged: "Research through the eyes of older fallers", "Living with falls", and "It's all in the mind is it?". Our study gives voice to older fallers who have recently participated in experimental research to learn of their personal views on research participation.

Can We Train Multisensory Integration in Adults? A Systematic Review.

The ability to efficiently combine information from different senses is an important perceptual process that underpins much of our daily activities. This process, known as multisensory integration, varies from individual to individual, and is affected by the ageing process, with impaired processing associated with age-related conditions, including balance difficulties, mild cognitive impairment and cognitive decline. Impaired multisensory perception has also been associated with a range of neurodevelopmental conditions, where novel intervention approaches are actively sought, for example dyslexia and autism. However, it remains unclear to what extent and how multisensory perception can be modified by training. This systematic review aims to evaluate the evidence that we can train multisensory perception in neurotypical adults. In all, 1521 studies were identified following a systematic search of the databases PubMed, Scopus, PsychInfo and Web of Science. Following screening for inclusion and exclusion criteria, 27 studies were chosen for inclusion. Study quality was assessed using the Methodological Index for Non-Randomised Studies (MINORS) tool and the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool 2.0 for Randomised Control Trials. We found considerable evidence that in-task feedback training using psychophysics protocols led to improved task performance. The generalisability of this training to other tasks of multisensory integration was inconclusive, with few studies and mixed findings reported. Promising findings from exercise-based training indicate physical activity protocols warrant further investigation as potential training avenues for improving multisensory integration. Future research directions should include trialling training protocols with clinical populations and other groups who would benefit from targeted training to improve inefficient multisensory integration.

Susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion is associated with gait speed in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults.

BACKGROUND: Multisensory integration is the ability to appropriately merge information from different senses for the purpose of perceiving and acting in the environment. During walking, information from multiple senses must be integrated appropriately to coordinate effective movements. We tested the association between a well characterised multisensory task, the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI), and gait speed in 3255 participants from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. High susceptibility to this illusion at longer stimulus onset asynchronies characterises older adults, and has been associated with cognitive and functional impairments, therefore it should be associated with slower gait speed. METHOD: Gait was measured under three conditions; usual pace, cognitive dual tasking, and maximal walking speed. A separate logistic mixed effects regression model was run for 1) gait at usual pace, 2) change in gait speed for the cognitive dual tasking relative to usual pace and 3) change in maximal walking speed relative to usual pace. In all cases a binary response indicating a correct/incorrect response to each SIFI trial was the dependent variable. The model controlled for covariates including age, sex, education, vision and hearing abilities, Body Mass Index, and cognitive function. RESULTS: Slower gait was associated with more illusions, particularly at longer temporal intervals between the flash-beep pair and the second beep, indicating that those who integrated incongruent sensory inputs over longer intervals, also walked slower. The relative changes in gait speed for cognitive dual tasking and maximal walking speed were also significantly associated with SIFI at longer SOAs. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support growing evidence that mobility, susceptibility to falling and balance control are associated with multisensory processing in ageing.

Audio-visual integration is more precise in older adults with a high level of long-term physical activity.

It is well established that physical activity leads to numerous health, cognitive, and psychological benefits. However, to date, very few studies have investigated the impact of physical activity on multisensory perception, that is, the brain's capacity to integrate information across sensory modalities. Furthermore, it is unknown what level of long-term physical activity is associated with multisensory integration in adults. We explored the relationship between multisensory integration and a ten-year physical activity trajectory in 2,974 adults aged 50+ from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing by measuring susceptibility to the Sound Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) at multiple audio-visual temporal asynchronies. Physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) at 2 years intervals over ten years. We used latent class trajectory modelling to identify latent growth classes of individuals following a similar trajectory of physical activity over time. We analysed the association of this trajectory with performance accuracy to the illusion trials of the SIFI task with generalized logistic mixed effects regression models, adjusted for several covariates. Results showed that more precise integration (i.e., lower SIFI susceptibility with larger temporal asynchronies) was associated with a higher level of sustained physical activity across ten years. Although the use of self-reported physical activity and a short version of the SIFI task limit our conclusions to some extent, nonetheless, the results suggest that sustained physical activity is associated with more precise multisensory integration, which in turn is linked to better balance and a lower risk of falling in older adults.

The effects of positive psychology interventions in Arab countries: A systematic review.

While there is evidence for the effects of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in the Western world, we know little about their effects on Arab cultures. This review aimed to assess the effects of PPIs on well-being and mental health across Arab countries. Systematic searches of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies investigating PPIs in Arabia were conducted in six English and Arabic databases from the inception of positive psychology in 1998 to 28 February 2022. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tools. The protocol was published in the BMJ Open. Forty-four studies from 10 Arab countries (n = 3598 participants) were included. Of these, 12 were RCTs and 32 were quasi-experimental. The studies mainly focused on adults (73%) and healthy populations (86%). PPIs included mindfulness, positive thinking, strengths, hope, optimism, self-compassion, positive traits, and multiple PPIs. Nearly all studies (91%) mentioned cultural adaptation; however, little detail was given. This is the first review in Arabia. PPIs appear to be effective for promoting well-being and reducing mental health issues. However, there were some risks of bias concerns. Future research should include younger and clinical populations, using larger samples and providing more details about adaptation.

Engagement with Nature and the Home Environment: Wellbeing and Proenvironmental Behavior among Irish and Italian University Students during the COVID-19 Emergency.

Growing evidence shows that exposure to nature and psychological engagement with nature improve health and wellbeing and promote greater proenvironmental engagement. The unprecedented situation created by COVID-related lockdowns seems to have brought both potential distress with household confinements and greater research on experiences in nature. University students may have been particularly impacted as the quality of their home arrangements can vary substantially. The aim of the study was to examine how psychological engagement with nature (nature connectedness and noticing nature), time spent in nature, and household conditions relate to psychological wellbeing and proenvironmental behavior among university students. An online survey was administered to a sample of 566 university students from Italy and Ireland. Hierarchical multiple regressions were performed to investigate the relationships between variables. The results indicate that time spent in nature and psychological engagement with nature in terms of nature connectedness and noticing nature were associated with increased wellbeing and pro-nature-conservation behavior, controlling for demographic covariates. Moreover, the perception of chaos in one's household was related to decreased wellbeing during the prolonged COVID-19 emergency. The findings highlight the need to invest in accessible natural places for students and to focus campus sustainability practices on encouraging nature connectedness to promote wellbeing and proenvironmental engagement.

The temporal precision of audiovisual integration is associated with longitudinal fall incidents but not sensorimotor fall risk in older adults.

Sustained multisensory integration over long inter-stimulus time delays is typically found in older adults, particularly those with a history of falls. However, the extent to which the temporal precision of audio-visual integration is associated with longitudinal fall or fall risk trajectories is unknown. A large sample of older adults (N = 2319) were grouped into longitudinal trajectories of self-reported fall incidents (i.e., decrease, stable, or increase in number) and, separately, their performance on a standard, objective measure of fall risk, Timed Up and Go (TUG; stable, moderate decline, severe decline). Multisensory integration was measured once as susceptibility to the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) across three stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs): 70 ms, 150 ms and 230 ms. Older adults with an increasing fall number showed a significantly different pattern of performance on the SIFI than non-fallers, depending on age: For adults with increasing incidents of falls, those aged 53-59 years showed a much smaller difference in illusion susceptibility at 70 ms versus 150 ms than those aged 70 + years. In contrast, non-fallers showed a more comparable difference between these SOA conditions across age groups. There was no association between TUG performance trajectories and SIFI susceptibility. These findings suggests that a fall event is associated with distinct temporal patterns of multisensory integration in ageing and have implications for our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning brain health in older age.

Kids observing other kids' hands: visuomotor priming in children.

We investigated motor resonance in children using a priming paradigm. Participants were asked to judge the weight of an object shortly primed by a hand in an action-related posture (grasp) or a non action-related one (fist). The hand prime could belong to a child or to an adult. We found faster response times when the object was preceded by a grasp hand posture (motor resonance effect). More crucially, participants were faster when the prime was a child's hand, suggesting that it could belong to their body schema, particularly when the child's hand was followed by a light object (motor simulation effect). A control experiment helped us to clarify the role of the hand prime. To our knowledge this is the first behavioral evidence of motor simulation and motor resonance in children. Implications of the results for the development of the sense of body ownership and for conceptual development are discussed.

The temperament trait of environmental sensitivity is associated with connectedness to nature and affinity to animals.

Heightened sensitivity to the environment characterizes approximately 30% of the population and is associated with a higher reactivity, positive or negative, to the surrounding environment. Little attention has been devoted to study the association between this trait and the response to nature and animals, despite the potential benefits of the natural environment for highly sensitive individuals. In the present two studies (N = 241, 83% female, age M = 37.43, SD = 13.5; N = 144, 92% female, age M = 39.9, SD = 13.1) we assessed the association of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), measured with the Highly Sensitive Person scale, with nature and animal affinity. In both studies, we found SPS to predict higher connectedness to nature. In addition, whilst there was no association between high SPS and attachment to pets in Study 1, in Study 2 SPS was predictive of a higher animal affinity, assessed in terms of stewardship and protection of animals. The present studies provide the first quantitative empirical evidence that highly sensitive individuals are more connected with nature and animals, therefore opening the possibility to explore nature based solutions to improve the quality of life in individuals scoring high in SPS.