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

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Recent research indicates functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) can detect emotional states.
• Prefrontal cortical activation is linked to emotional processing and cognitive tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate prefrontal cortical activation differences in response to viewing urban versus garden scenes.
• To explore the potential of fNIRS in identifying subject preferences for different visual stimuli.

Main Methods:

• A multi-channel continuous wave fNIRS system recorded brain activity from seven subjects.
• Subjects viewed randomized urban and garden scenes, followed by idle periods.
• NIRS-SPM software analyzed hemoglobin responses and generated prefrontal cortical activation maps.

Main Results:

• Group analysis revealed significant differences in prefrontal cortex activation between urban and garden scenes.
• An increase in oxy-hemoglobin was observed in the right prefrontal cortex when viewing garden scenes compared to urban scenes (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Garden scenes may induce a more pleasant and less stressful experience than urban scenes, as indicated by neural activation patterns.
• fNIRS technology shows promise for developing Brain-Computer Interfaces to detect scene preferences.