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. 2022 Aug 2;19(15):9457.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159457.

Exposure to Green, Blue and Historic Environments and Mental Well-Being: A Comparison between Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Display and Flat Screen Exposure

Rebecca Reece  1 , Anna Bornioli  2 , Isabelle Bray  1 , Nigel Newbutt  3 , David Satenstein  4 , Chris Alford  5
Affiliations

Exposure to Green, Blue and Historic Environments and Mental Well-Being: A Comparison between Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Display and Flat Screen Exposure

Rebecca Reece et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Improving the mental health of urban residents is a global public health priority. This study builds on existing work that demonstrates the ability of virtual exposure to restorative environments to improve population mental health. It compares the restorative effects of green, blue and historic environments delivered by both flat screen and immersive virtual reality technology, and triangulates data from psychological, physiological and qualitative sources. Results from the subjective measure analyses showed that exposures to all the experimental videos were associated with self-reported reduced anxiety and improved mood, although the historic environment was associated with a smaller reduction of anxiety (p < 0.01). These results were supported by the qualitative accounts. For two of the electroencephalography (EEG) frequency bands, higher levels of activity were observed for historic environments. In relation to the mode of delivery, the subjective measures did not suggest any effect, while for the EEG analyses there was evidence of a significant effect of technology across three out of four frequency bands. In conclusion, this study adds to the evidence that the benefits of restorative environments can be delivered through virtual exposure and suggests that virtual reality may provide greater levels of immersion than flat screen viewing.

Keywords: 360-degree video; EEG; anxiety; historic environments; immersive technology; natural and built environments; restorative environments; virtual reality; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study design and data collection. Flat-screen = Flat screen computer monitor; VR HMD = Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Display; STAI-T = Subjective Trait Anxiety; STAI-S = Subjective State Anxiety; UWIST = Subjective Stress.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visual stimuli. (A) Green environment; (B) Blue environment; (C) Historic environment; (D) Traffic.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Familiarity with green, blue, and historic environment videos.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Theta power (µV²) in the overall frontal (A) and occipital (B) regions.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Hemispheric differences in frontal alpha power (µV²) for green (A) and blue (B) environments.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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