Pretty “chocolate box” views of the countryside or the coast CAN make you calmer, according to boffins at Bradford University.

Engineers at the university have been working on research which suggests tranquil environmental scenes, such as the sea or a beach, can positively affect the human brain function.

The research, published yesterday, says scenes containing natural features cause distinct brain areas to become “connected” with each other, while man-made environments, such as motorways, disrupt the brain connections.

Professor Greg Watts, of the school of engineering, design and technology at the University of Bradford, said the research could impact upon the future designs of more tranquil public spaces and buildings, such as hospitals.

He said: “We were doing a project on tranquillity and a project in Sheffield seemed to link in with that. So we contacted Sheffield University and I suggested that they look at these contrasting environments. So one environment would be a beach scene, with waves lapping on the beach, and the other would be a motorway.”

The research, published in the NeuroImage journal, uses brain imaging to assess how the environment impacts brain functions.

A team of researchers, including the engineers from Bradford, carried out brain scanning at the University of Sheffield to examine brain activity when people were presented with images of beaches and motorway scenes.

The images were accompanied with the same sound, based on the fact that waves breaking on the beach and traffic moving on a motorway produced a similar constantly “roaring” sound.

Using scanning that measures brain activity they showed the natural, tranquil scenes caused different brain areas to become “connected” with one anther – indicating that these brain regions were working in sync – while the non-tranquil motorway scenes disrupted connections within the brain.

Mr Watts said: “You can see that what you see actually does affect your perception of tranquillity.

“It’s not just the noise level – it’s what you see.

“We know from other research that there is a health link, that when you’re in natural surroundings it has a restorative effect.”

Dr Michael Hunter, of Sheffield Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory (SCANLab), based at the University of Sheffield, said: “People experience tranquillity as a state of calmness and reflection, which is restorative compared with the stressful effects of sustained attention in day-to-day life. Natural environments induce feelings of tranquillity.”