TY - JOUR
T1 - Physiological activity in calm thermal indoor environments
AU - Okamoto, Tsuyoshi
AU - Tamura, Kaori
AU - Miyamoto, Naoyuki
AU - Tanaka, Shogo
AU - Futaeda, Takaharu
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP24650470. We would like to thank all participants in our experiments, Emi Tsuruta and Sayaka Matsumoto for experimental assistance, and Eriko Kiriyama for preparing the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s).
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Indoor environmental comfort has previously been quantified based on the subjective assessment of thermal physical parameters, such as temperature, humidity, and airflow velocity. However, the relationship of these parameters to brain activity remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of airflow on brain activity using electroencephalograms (EEG) of participants in a living environment under different airflow conditions. Before the recording, the room was set to a standardised air temperature and humidity. During the recording, each participant was required to perform a simple time-perception task that involved pressing buttons after estimating a 10-second interval. Cooling and heating experiments were conducted in summer and winter, respectively. A frequency analysis of the EEGs revealed that gamma and beta activities showed lower amplitudes under conditions without airflow than with airflow, regardless of the season (i.e., cooling or heating). Our results reveal new neurophysiological markers of the response to airflow sensation. Further, based on the literature linking gamma and beta waves to less anxious states in calm environments, we suggest that airflow may alter the feelings of the participants.
AB - Indoor environmental comfort has previously been quantified based on the subjective assessment of thermal physical parameters, such as temperature, humidity, and airflow velocity. However, the relationship of these parameters to brain activity remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of airflow on brain activity using electroencephalograms (EEG) of participants in a living environment under different airflow conditions. Before the recording, the room was set to a standardised air temperature and humidity. During the recording, each participant was required to perform a simple time-perception task that involved pressing buttons after estimating a 10-second interval. Cooling and heating experiments were conducted in summer and winter, respectively. A frequency analysis of the EEGs revealed that gamma and beta activities showed lower amplitudes under conditions without airflow than with airflow, regardless of the season (i.e., cooling or heating). Our results reveal new neurophysiological markers of the response to airflow sensation. Further, based on the literature linking gamma and beta waves to less anxious states in calm environments, we suggest that airflow may alter the feelings of the participants.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-017-11755-3
DO - 10.1038/s41598-017-11755-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 28912456
AN - SCOPUS:85029508483
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 7
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 11519
ER -