Physiological Responses of the Youth Viewing a Japanese Garden

Previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to a Japanese garden is a non-pharmacological measure to improve the behavioral symptoms of elderly people with dementia, and that Japanese gardens are significantly more effective than other environments. However, it is not clear whether Japanese gardens have similar effects in the young. To address this open question, we measured the physiological responses of university students when viewing a Japanese garden, and compared them to the same students’ responses when viewing a control space. We measured three physiological indicators of autonomous nervous system (ANS) activity: the electrocardiograph (ECG), the blood volume pulse (BVP) and the galvanic skin response (GSR). Our results suggest that the Japanese garden does not have as calming an effect on younger subjects as observed previously in elderly subjects. However, students did respond more positively to the Japanese garden than to an unstructured space. Ambient temperature was found to be a critical factor affecting heart rate and heart rate variability, but not other measures.