Sitting or Walking? Analyzing the Neural Emotional Indicators of Urban Green Space Behavior with Mobile EEG

There is a close relationship between urban green space and the physical and mental health of individuals. Most previous studies have discussed the impact of the structure of green space and its elements. This study focused on the emotional changes caused by common behaviors in urban green space (walking and sitting). We recruited 40 college students and randomly assigned them to walking and sitting groups (20 students per group). The two groups performed the same 8-min high-pressure learning task indoors and then performed 8-min recovery activities in a simulated urban green space (a bamboo-lawn space). We used the Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset to dynamically measure six neural emotional parameters: “engagement,” “valence,” “meditation,” “frustration,” “focus,” and “excitement.” We conducted a pretest and posttest and used analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to analyze the posttest data (with the pretest data as covariates). The results of the comparison of the two behaviors showed that the “valence” and “meditation” values of the walking group were higher than those of the sitting group, which suggests that walking in urban green space is more favorable for stress reduction. The sitting group had a higher “focus” value than did the walking group, which suggests that sitting in urban green space is better for attention restoration. The results of this study can provide guidance for urban green space planning and design as well as health guidance for urban residents.