Walking in nature for as little as 15 to 20 minutes can improve your attention span — even if you don't always enjoy it.

In his new 324-page book, "Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical, and Social Well-Being" ( Simon & Schuster ), environmental neuroscientist Marc G. Berman lays out how our natural environment can help restore people's frazzled, overstimulated nervous systems.

Berman, founder and director of the Environmental Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Chicago, is also professor and chair of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago as well as co-director of the Masters of Computational Social Science program.

Through his lab's research, Berman and his team have found that walking for longer periods of time — say

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