| Title |
Subjective Stress Recovery and Frontal EEG Temporal Dynamics in Multisensory Biophilic Virtual Reality Rest Environments |
| Authors |
김상희(Kim, Sang-Hee) ; 추승연(Choo, Seong-Yeon) ; 박혜진(Park, Hae-Jin) ; 류지혜(Ryu, Ji-Hye) |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5659/JAIK.2026.42.4.155 |
| Keywords |
Multisensory; Biophilic design; Virtual Reality; Electroencephalography; Frontal lobe; Stress recovery; Time-series analysis |
| Abstract |
This study investigates stress recovery in multisensory biophilic virtual reality (VR) rest environments by analyzing subjective stress responses
and frontal electroencephalography (EEG) dynamics. Seventy university students reporting moderate stress on the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
participated, with data from 54 participants included in the final analysis. Stress was induced using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task
(PASAT-C), after which participants experienced one of four 10-minute VR rest conditions: non-stimulus (NON), visual (V), audio-visual
(AV), or visual-olfactory (VO). Frontal EEG signals (F3 and F4) were continuously recorded, and subjective stress was assessed before and
after rest. EEG data were processed to extract relative theta (RT), alpha (RA), beta (RB), gamma (RG) power, and frontal alpha asymmetry
(FAA). Temporal changes during rest and differences between conditions were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA, while subjective
stress changes were assessed with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and repeated-measures ANOVA. Results confirmed that PASAT consistently
induced stress across all conditions. Subjective stress decreased after rest in the NON, V, and VO conditions, with the largest reduction
observed in the VO condition, while no significant change occurred in the AV condition. Temporal EEG analysis showed significant
time-dependent changes in the NON condition, particularly in right frontal (F4) theta, beta, and gamma activity, whereas no temporal EEG
effects were observed in the biophilic stimulus conditions. These findings suggest that biophilic VR rest environments incorporating olfactory
stimuli may enhance subjective stress recovery. Additionally, time-based analysis of frontal EEG activity offers a valuable approach for
exploring neural dynamics associated with recovery in controlled VR settings. |