Cloudy or sunny? Effects of different environmental types of urban green spaces on public physiological and psychological health under two weather conditions.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that urban green spaces (UGSs) benefit human health, but few have focused on the influence of weather on environmental restorativeness. This study assessed how different weather conditions and environments affect human health. We exposed 50 participants to different UGS environments under cloudy and sunny conditions and collected physiological, psychological and aesthetic preference data. The result showed that the physical and mental benefits of UGSs were stronger on sunny days (pulse: [t = 2.169, p < 0.05]; positive affect: [Z = -10.299, p < 0.001]; perceived restortiveness: [Z = -3.224, p < 0.01]). The spaces with exposed sky had greater physiological restorativeness on sunny days; the spaces with calm water had greater emotional restorativeness on cloudy days, and natural spaces with less sky exposure had greater perceived restoration in both weather conditions. The spaces with water and less sky exposure promoted psychophysiological restoration in both weather conditions. This study demonstrates that weather significantly influences the restorative potential of UGSs, and there are also restorative variations in different green space environments under two weather conditions. In future UGS planning practices, it would be advisable to select appropriate environmental types and features based on the climatic characteristics of different regions. For instance, in areas with frequent overcast conditions, incorporating serene water bodies could be advantageous, while regions with predominantly sunny weather should encompass spaces with expansive sky views. By conducting comprehensive research on restoration environments that take weather conditions into account, new insights and nature-based solutions can be provided for creating healthy human habitats in the context of global climate change.

Exploring Restrictions to use of community greenways for physical activity through structural equation modeling.

Public health problems caused by rapid urbanization have attracted increasing amounts of attention. Existing studies show that improving the frequency and duration of physical activity among urban residents can effectively reduce their disease risk. A community greenway, as a green space for public activity directly serving community residents, is one of the best spatial place for bringing health benefits to people. Although the scale and scope of greenway construction have been increasing in recent years, the utilization rate of some greenways is not high for various reasons, restricting the extent to which people engage in healthy physical activities in greenway spaces. In this study, the greenway of Nancheng Community in Wenjiang District, Chengdu city, China was selected as the object of study, and structural equation modeling was conducted to explore the objective environmental factors and individual characteristics acting as barriers to use of the community greenway by the population for physical activity. The results show that user experience, the greenway landscape, and safety and accessibility are important factors that restrict people's willingness engage in physical activity in the community greenway environment. The results of this study provide a direction for further consideration of ways to enhance people's willingness to make use of greenways for physical activity, and further provide a theoretical basis for the healthy design and transformation of community greenway spaces.

Neuro-emotions based on electroencephalograph response to different color Ardisia mamillata Hance plants in elderly people with and without cognitive impairment.

Background: Given the aging population, the quality of mental health of elderly people deserves special attention. The aims of this study were (1) to assess the difference of neuro-emotion based on EEG from the cognitively impaired elderly (CNE) and the cognitively normal elderly (CIE) participants viewing different color Ardisia mamillata Hance and (2) to determine which color Ardisia mamillata Hance has greater benefits for boosting their neuro-emotions. Methods: The cognitive function of the participants was judged by using the revised Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale combined with the daily cognitive performance of the participants, and the participants were divided into the cognitive normal elderly (CNE) and the cognitive impairment elderly (CIE). A total of 10 CNE volunteers and 10 CIE volunteers were recruited as participants for this study. For this study, two varieties of Ardisia mamillata Hance, green tiger tongue (GTT) with green leaves and red tiger tongue (RTT) with reddish brown leaves, were observed as plant materials. In total, six emotional indexes, including stress, engagement, interest, excitement, focus, and relaxation, were then measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Results: RTT had the most positive effect on EEG neuro-emotion in the CNE group, with significant reductions in stress, engagement, and focus in the RTT test, while the combination of GTT+RTT had a positive effect on EEG neuro-emotions in the CIE group, with significant reductions in engagement and focus in the GTT+RTT test. No statistically significant differences were found for the interest, excitement, and relaxation index in the CNE and CIE participants in all tests. Conclusion: Significant reductions were observed in stress, engagement, and focus values of the CIE participants in the RTT test, which indicated that the CNE participants were more relaxed. RTT is a reddish brown and warm color plant, so the CNE individuals should always have the warm color plants indoors or outdoors, which could help boost their neuro-emotions. Significant reductions were observed in engagement and focus values of the CIE participants in the GTT+RTT test, which indicated that the CIE participants were more relaxed. The combination of GTT+RTT test shows the combination cold and warm color plants; therefore, the CIE individuals should always have a combination of cool and warm color plants indoors or outdoors, which could help boost their EEG neuro-emotions.

Exploring the influence of residential courtyard space landscape elements on people's emotional health in an immersive virtual environment.

A good residential courtyard space not only brings people a psychological feeling of emotional pleasure but also attracts people to actively engage in more physical activities, which is of great significance to improving people's physical and mental health. Green vegetation and fitness facilities as the most preferred landscape elements in residential courtyard spaces and their effects on people's emotional health have not been further investigated. In this research, a virtual experiment was constructed in a residential courtyard space in Chengdu City, China, and electrodermal sensors were used to measure the real-time emotional changes of people in different virtual scenarios to analyze the effects of two landscape elements, green vegetation and fitness facilities, on people's emotional health, and the differences of such effects among different genders and ages. The results confirm that the combination of virtual reality technology and wearable physiological sensor measurement technology could effectively identify health-promoting landscape elements in urban environments; In residential courtyard spaces, green vegetation is more emotionally healthy than fitness facilities, and fitness facilities have better emotional health benefits for men and people over 30 years of age. The results of the study provide a quantitative basis for the healthier design and transformation of residential courtyard spaces for both green vegetation and fitness facilities.

Electroencephalography-Based Neuroemotional Responses in Cognitively Normal and Cognitively Impaired Elderly by Watching the Ardisia mamillata Hance with Fruits and without Fruits.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to explore the difference between the indexes of neuro-emotion between the cognitively normal elderly (CNE) and cognitively impaired elderly (CIE) while viewing the Ardisia mamillata Hance with red fruit (F) and without red fruit (NF) to determine which kind of the Ardisia mamillata Hance would be more beneficial to the participants' neuro-emotions. METHODS: Nine CNE individuals and nine CIE individuals, ranging in age from 80-90 years old, participated in this study and signed the informed consent form before beginning the experiment. Six mood indicators (engagement, excitement, focus, interest, relaxation, and stress) were measured by an EEG headset during the participants' viewing of the NF, F, and NF + F. RESULTS: For the CNE group, their engagement, excitement, and focus values were the lowest, while their interest value was the highest when they view the NF + F; therefore, we obtain the results that the combination of NF + F was the most beneficial to their EEG emotions. For the CIE group, the combination of NF + F increased their interest score, but decreased their focus score, which indicated that the NF + F was the most beneficial to their neuro-emotions. CONCLUSIONS: This study concluded that the combination of plants with and without fruits was most beneficial to the neural emotions of both groups of elderly people. Especially for the CIE, plants with larger and warmer colors, such as yellow, red, and orange fruits, should be considered for installation indoors or outdoors, as this would be better for their emotional well-being.

Research on the Healing Potential of Rural Community Streets From the Perspective of Audiovisual Integration: A Case Study of Four Rural Communities in China.

Rural communities have become a hot topic in academic circles because of their graceful natural environment and great healing potential. However, existing research still lacks attention to the street space in rural communities and rarely considers its integrated visual and soundscape design in terms of their effect on public health. As a result, the healing potential of rural community streets cannot be fully used in design practice. Relevant audiovisual materials were collected from a field investigation in four rural communities in southwestern China. Based on these data, the subjective and objective healing index data of subjects under comprehensive audiovisual conditions were collected and analyzed through laboratory experiments. The results revealed that type of street space affects healing potential, and the artificial-natural enclosed and natural semi-enclosed streets are the street types with the best healing effect. When the total sound pressure level was 55dB(A), the sound combination with birdsong accounting for 70% had a significant positive effect on improving the healing effect of rural community streets. In contrast, the sound combination with birdsong accounting for 50% or less had no significant effect on improving healing. The subjective healing perception of street space in rural communities was significantly positively correlated with aesthetic preferences. There was also a significant correlation between subjective healing perception and physiological index data in the audiovisual combination. This research explored the impact of different types of street space and sound combinations on the healing effect of rural community streets in an integrated audiovisual environment and provided a scientific basis for the healing landscape design of rural community streets in an integrated audiovisual environment. It was expected to provide new ideas for the construction of rural community landscapes, including acoustic landscapes, to promote physical and mental healing.

Electroencephalography (EEG)-Based Neural Emotional Response to Flower Arrangements (FAs) on Normal Elderly (NE) and Cognitively Impaired Elderly (CIE).

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to explore the differences and similarities of EEG -based neural emotional response toward flower arrangements (FAs) between the normal elderly (NE) and cognitively impaired elderly (CIE) in arranging flowers. METHODS: The study participants included 16 elderly individuals: eight elderly people with normal cognitive function and eight elderly people with cognitive dysfunction. They were divided into two groups to arrange flowers, and six mood indicators (Engagement, Excitation, Focus, Interest, Relaxation and Stress) were measured with EEG before and after the experiment. RESULTS: The similarities were that there was no significant difference in Excitement, Relaxation and Stress between pre-test and post-test for NE and CIE. The differences were that there was a significant difference on Engagement and Interest in CIE, and they both increased, but there was no difference with respect to them in NE. While there was a significant difference on the Focus of NE, it was decreased, but there was no difference for it with respect to CIE. CONCLUSIONS: A similarity on EEG-Based Neural Emotional Responses to flower arrangements between NE and CIE was that they both felt relaxation. The differences were that the Focus of NE decreased and the Interest and Engagement of CIE increased. CIEs were more interested and engaged in FAs.