Prefrontal cortical activation while viewing urban and garden scenes: A pilot fNIRS study

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that pleasant and unpleasant emotions could be detected through functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). This study investigates the prefrontal cortical activation in human subjects while they were viewing urban and garden scenes. A multi-channel continuous wave fNIRS system was used to record the prefrontal cortical activations from seven subjects. During the data collection, the subjects viewed 40 trials of video clips. In each trial, the subjects viewed a video of randomized urban or garden scenes for 30s followed by 30s of idle scene which showed a dark blue progress bar on black background on the screen. NIRS-SPM is employed to work out the changes of hemoglobin response and the prefrontal cortical activations were generated using group analysis based on the contrasts of urban versus idle, garden versus idle and urban versus garden. The activation for the contrast of urban versus garden showed an increase of oxy-hemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex with p <; 0.05. This preliminary result showed that the garden scene might provide a pleasant and less stressful experience as compared to the urban scene for subjects. This suggests the possibility of using a NIRS-based Brain-Computer Interface to detect subject preferences of different scenes.

Psychological and physiological effects of viewing a money plant by older adults

“…Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non‐invasive neuroimaging technology that maps the functions of the cerebral cortex by measuring hemodynamics and demonstrates cost‐effectiveness (Lai, Ho, Lim, & Ho, ). A recent fNIRS study showed that urban scene led to significant increase of oxyhemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex as compared to the garden scene (Yu, Ang, Ho, Sia, & Ho, ) and further research is required to assess the effect of plant viewing by fNRIS. However, we do not have a full understanding of the various EEG results.…”

“…Therefore, the psychological benefits of greenery for older adults are significant (i.e., decreased anxiety), and an indoor green environment can enhance spiritual health (Qin, Sun, Zhou, Leng, & Lian, 2014 (Lai, Ho, Lim, & Ho, 2017). A recent fNIRS study showed that urban scene led to significant increase of oxyhemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex as compared to the garden scene (Yu, Ang, Ho, Sia, & Ho, 2017) and further research is required to assess the effect of plant viewing by fNRIS. However, we do not have a full understanding of the various EEG results.…”

The Association of Knowledge, Attitudes and Access with Park Use before and after a Park-Prescription Intervention for Low-Income Families in the U.S.

“…Evidence that exposure to nature, presumably found in many parks, promotes health across the lifespan also bolsters the practice of park prescriptions [19][20][21][22]. The biological basis for park prescriptions is further suggested by research that viewing urban versus garden scenes resulted in an increase of oxy-hemoglobin on the right area of the prefrontal cortex that indicates more stressful experience in the urban scenes [23].…”

Effect of Viewing Video Representation of the Urban Environment and Forest Environment on Mood and Level of Procrastination

“…Control is often used, such as being in an urban environment, where a negative effect on the psychological and physiological well-being of the subjects has been observed [50]. Another way to assess the impact of the forest environment on humans is to simulate the impact of this environment in controlled conditions, for example by reproducing the images and sounds that occur in a forest environment, using a monitor [51], or by using virtual reality [52]. In this case, the control environment can be an image, a sound or virtual reality depicting the urban environment.…”