Physiological and psychological effects on high school students of viewing real and artificial pansies.

Miho Igarashi,Harumi Ikei,Yoshifumi Miyazaki,Mariko Aga,Takafumi Namekawa

doi:10.3390/ijerph120302521

Miho Igarashi, Harumi Ikei + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120302521

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Abstract

The relaxation effects of gardening have attracted attention; however, very few studies have researched its physiological effects on humans. This study aimed to clarify the physiological and psychological effects on high school students of viewing real and artificial pansies. Forty high school students (male: 19, female: 21) at Chiba Prefectural Kashiwanoha Senior High School, Japan, participated in this experiment. The subjects were presented with a visual stimulation of fresh yellow pansies (Viola x wittrockiana “Nature Clear Lemon”) in a planter for 3 min. Artificial yellow pansies in a planter were used as the control. Heart rate variability was used as a physiological measurement and the modified semantic differential method was used for subjective evaluation. Compared with artificial pansies, visual stimulation with real flowers resulted in a significant decrease in the ratio of low- to high-frequency heart rate variability component, which reflects sympathetic nerve activity. In contrast, high frequency, which reflects parasympathetic nerve activity, showed no significant difference. With regard to the psychological indices, viewing real flowers resulted in “comfortable”, “relaxed”, and “natural” feelings. The findings indicate that visual stimulation with real pansies induced physiological and psychological relaxation effects in high school students.

Highlights

In the increasingly urbanized and technological modern society, mitigation of stress is a great concern and much attention has been paid to the relaxation effects of the natural environment
We focused on the stress state of minors and studied the physiological effects of viewing flowers in a gardening activity
Real flowers showed lower movement than artificial flowers: at 0–1 min, 9.6% lower; 1–2 min, 9.6% lower; 2–3 min, 13.4% lower

Summary

Introduction

In the increasingly urbanized and technological modern society, mitigation of stress is a great concern and much attention has been paid to the relaxation effects of the natural environment. Mentioned that humans who live in modern society have experienced more than 99.9% of the evolutionary process in natural environments [4]. Our bodies, which are adjusted to natural environments, cannot respond well to the suddenly developed artificial society; we always feel stressed. An epidemiological investigation that focused on a green tract of land showed that the area had low mortality of residents [6]. Another study pointed out the importance of a green tract of land in urban residential environments [7]

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