Physiological and Psychological Effects of Forest and Urban Sounds Using High-Resolution Sound Sources

Jo, Hyunju; Song, Chorong; Ikei, Harumi; Enomoto, Seiya; Kobayashi, Hiromitsu; Miyazaki, Y.

doi:10.3390/ijerph16152649

Cited by 55 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The negative POMS subscales also declined substantially when listening to forest sounds compared with city sounds. These results coincide with data from studies that reported physiological and psychological responses to forest stimuli in healthy adults [12,15,25,28,29]. "Forest therapy" has become increasingly popular as a therapeutic activity worldwide.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…However, while it is ideal to go out into the forest, it is difficult for city dwellers to visit forests on a daily basis. Therefore, research into bringing the forest to city dwellers began, and in 2019, Jo et al [15] indicated that female university students when exposed to high-resolution forest sounds compared with city sounds were induced with physiological and psychological relaxation, and the profiles of the mood states (POMS) depression scale scores were also significantly lower. Furthermore, some studies have reported several distinct structural differences in the brains of patients with GD [16,17], resulting in unpredictable reactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relaxing Effect Induced by Forest Sound in Patients with Gambling Disorder

Ochiai

Song

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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The number of people addicted to gambling has increased worldwide. They often suffer from debilitating medical conditions associated with stress or depression. This study examined the physiological and psychological reactions of gambling disorder (GD) patients while listening to high-definition forest or city sounds using headphones. In total, 12 Japanese male GD patients were exposed to high-definition forest or city sound waves for 1 min via headphones. Near-infrared spectroscopy of the prefrontal cortex was used to examine oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentrations. Heart rate and heart rate variability are indicators of autonomic nervous function. We performed subjective evaluation via the modified version of the semantic differential (SD) method with the profiles of the mood states (POMS). Experiencing forest sounds led to substantial differences as opposed to listening to city sounds: (1) oxy-Hb levels of the bilateral prefrontal cortices were lower (2) the modified SD method resulted in increased comfortable and relaxed feelings, (3) the negative POMS subscale scores were significantly lower, indicating that negative emotions diminished markedly when patients listened to forest sounds. This is the first study to show that sounds of forest relaxed individuals physiologically and psychologically to minimize GD.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relaxing Effect Induced by Forest Sound in Patients with Gambling Disorder

Ochiai

Song

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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“…In the present study, significant decreases in the oxy-Hb concentration were noted in the left and right prefrontal cortices. In the previous TRS studies using various sensory stimuli, significant differences were noted in only the left prefrontal cortex [34,37,50], only the right prefrontal cortex [33,35,39,40,51,52], or both cortices [36,38,[53][54][55]. Thus, it is not clear whether a significant decrease in the oxy-Hb concentration occurs in the right prefrontal cortex, left prefrontal cortex, or both cortices, and further investigations are needed in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This finding suggests that NIRS enables the detection of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex region. Some previous studies reported that the oxy-Hb concentration in the prefrontal cortex significantly reduced and the subjective relaxed feeling significantly improved simultaneously in participants who had been exposed to visual [33][34][35], tactile [36][37][38], auditory [39], or olfactory [40] stimulation.…”

Section: Vertical Imagementioning

confidence: 98%

Physiological effects of visual stimulation with full-scale wall images composed of vertically and horizontally arranged wooden elements

2019

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Wood is a raw material that is used not only in the production of structural members for various buildings, but also in the interior finishes that are directly seen and touched by the occupants. Wood has also been recognized as a humanfriendly material, but few studies have experimentally confirmed the physiological benefits it brings to humans. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the physiological effects of visual stimulation with wood. Two types of full-scale square, wooden-wall images composed of vertically or horizontally arranged lumber, were prepared using computer graphics and projected onto a large display to create the visual stimuli, and a gray image was also prepared as a control. Twenty-eight female Japanese university students participated in the study. The participants initially spent 60 s viewing the gray background (rest period) and then observed each of the wooden-wall images and the gray image separately in a random order for 90 s each. During the visual stimulation, the oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration as an indicator of prefrontal brain activity and heart rate variability as an indicator of autonomic nervous activity were continuously measured in each participant. Subjective evaluation of each visual stimulus was then performed using a modified semantic differential method and the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition test. It was found that visual stimulation with either of the wooden interior wall images induced a significant decrease in oxy-Hb concentration in the left and right prefrontal cortex compared with the gray image. Furthermore, the subjective evaluation showed that the wooden-wall images provided a significantly more "comfortable, " "relaxed, " and "natural" impression than the gray image and decreased the negative mood states, with the vertically arranged wooden-wall image having a more positive effect than the horizontally arranged image.

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“…This may explain the higher prevalence of mental health disease in urban as compared to rural environments [11]. On the other hand, nature exposure has been shown to induce psychological recovery (e.g., from stress and mental fatigue) [12][13][14], positive emotions [15,16], and to improve cognitive performance, memory, and creativity [17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Quality Assessment of Urban Scenes with the Contemplative Landscape Model: Evidence from a Compact City Downtown Core

Yanru

Masoudi

Chadala³

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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In the face of rapid urbanization and the growing burden of mental health disease, there is a need to design cities with consideration for human mental health and well-being. There is an emerging body of evidence on the importance of everyday environmental exposures regarding the mental health of city inhabitants. For example, contemplative landscapes, through a series of neuroscience experiments, were shown to trigger improved mood and restoration of attention. While the Contemplative Landscape Model (CLM) for scoring landscape views was applied to single images, its suitability was never tested for walking paths and areas with a diversity of viewpoints. This study aims to fill this gap using the high-density downtown of Singapore, also known as a “City in a Garden” for its advanced urban greening strategies, as a case study. In this study, 68 360° photos were taken along four popular walking paths every 20 m. A photo set of 204 items was created by extracting three view angles from each photo. Each of them was independently scored by three experts and average CLM scores for each view and path were obtained. The results were then fed into an open-source Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) for visualization. Cohen’s kappa agreement between experts’ scores was computed. The outcomes were mapped to facilitate the identification of the most contemplative viewpoints and paths. Moreover, specific contemplative landscape patterns have been distinguished and assessed allowing the recommendation of design strategies to improve the quality of viewpoints and paths. The inter-rater agreement reached substantial to perfect values. CLM is a reliable and suitable tool that enables the fine-grained assessment and improvement of the visual quality of the urban living environments with consideration of the mental health and well-being of urbanites. It can be used at a larger scale owing to 360° photos taken from the pedestrian’s point of view. Utilizing spatially explicit maps in QGIS platforms enables a wider range of visualizations and allows for spatial patterns to be revealed that otherwise would have remained hidden. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of our semi-automated method. Furthermore, given the high inter-rater agreement observed, we suggest that there is potential in developing fully automated methods.

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Physiological and Psychological Effects of Forest and Urban Sounds Using High-Resolution Sound Sources

Cited by 55 publications

References 57 publications

Relaxing Effect Induced by Forest Sound in Patients with Gambling Disorder

Relaxing Effect Induced by Forest Sound in Patients with Gambling Disorder

Physiological effects of visual stimulation with full-scale wall images composed of vertically and horizontally arranged wooden elements

Visual Quality Assessment of Urban Scenes with the Contemplative Landscape Model: Evidence from a Compact City Downtown Core

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