Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34

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Physiology & Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/phb

Human physiological responses to wooden indoor environment

Xi Zhang a, Zhiwei Lian a,⁎, Yong Wu b
a
School of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
b
Kunlun Wood Structure Technology Co. Ltd., Suzhou 215000, China

H I G H L I G H T S

• The study explores human physiological responses in a wooden indoor environment

• The experiment measured physiological parameters at work and rest
• Subjects have less tension in wooden indoor environments than in non-wooden environments

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Previous studies are mainly focused on non-wooden environments, whereas few are concerned with wooden
Received 21 August 2016 ones. How wooden indoor environments impact the physiology of the occupants is still unclear. The purpose
Received in revised form 24 February 2017 of this study was to explore the distinct physiological responses to wooden and non-wooden indoor environ-
Accepted 27 February 2017
ments, assessed by physiological parameters tests including blood pressure, electrocardiogram measurements,
Available online 2 March 2017
electro-dermal activity, oxyhemoglobin saturation, skin temperature, and near distance vision. Twenty healthy
Keywords:
adults participated in this experiment, and their physiological responses were evaluated in a 90 minute investi-
Wooden environment gation. The results illustrated that; less tension and fatigue were generated in the wooden rooms than in the non-
Physiological responses wooden rooms when the participants did their work. In addition, the study also found that the wooden environ-
Physiological parameters ments benefit the autonomic nervous system, respiratory system, and visual system. Moreover, wooden rooms
Office workers play a valuable role in physiological regulation and ease function especially after a consecutive period of work.
Stress These results provide an experimental basis to support that wooden environment is beneficial to indoor occu-
pants than the non-wooden indoor environment.
© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction literature surveys performed by Tsunetsugu et al. [5,6], a difference in

Given the amount of time we spend inside a room, the indoor envi-
ronments play a critical role in our health, with physical surroundings
contributing in both positive and negative ways. Studies have measured
physiological responses to explore the impact of indoor environments
on human health [1–3]. However, these findings have been mainly de-
rived from non-wooden indoor environments; there is a lack of research
related to wooden indoor environments.
Burnard and Kutnar [4] hypothesized that bringing nature into the
built environment may improve the well-being of occupants. The
wooden environment is a particularly good example for this purpose.
Other researchers have explored this concept. As summarized in
Abbreviations: ECG, electrocardiogram; HR, heart rate; HRV, heart rate variability; SCL,
skin conductance level; SpO2, oxyhemoglobin saturation.
⁎ Corresponding author at: Room 405, Mulan Chu Chao Building, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
E-mail address: zwlian@sjtu.edu.cn (Z. Lian).
a wood ratio in the interior wall resulted in different physiological re-
sponses, especially in terms of autonomic nervous system activity. The
studies showed that pulse rate increased significantly in the 45% wood
ratio room, systolic blood pressure decreased in the 90% wood ratio
room and that these two indices were unchanged in the 0% wood
ratio room. In addition, Sakuragawa et al. [7] performed a similar
study that used full-sized hinoki wall panels and a white steel wall
panel to explore the effect of visual stimulation from wood panels. Con-
tinuous blood pressure measurements were used as the physiological
indicator. Results showed that the systolic blood pressure decreased sig-
nificantly in the subject group who saw the hinoki wall panels, while it
increased in the subject group who saw the white wall panels. In addi-
tion to research on visual stimulation, Sakuragawa and Kaneko [8]
attempted to explore the physiological reactions of the human body
after contact with wood. They found that contact with wood produced
a safe or comfortable sensation and did not create a physiological state
of stress since no associated increases in systolic blood pressure mea-
surements were observed. Indeed, Fell [9] clarified that using wood for

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.02.043
0031-9384/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
28 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34

Fig. 1. Arrangements of experimental rooms. (1) maintenance wall; (2) shutters; experiments were conducted with the shutters closed; (3) entrance door; (4) working chair; (5) working
desk; (6) physiological measuring instrument and monitor; (7) personal computer for performing the work task; (8) thermal environment monitoring point; (9) eye patch; (10)
instruments to measure blood pressure and pulse rate.

interior treatments in indoor environments has a positive impact on
well-being, especially related to indicators of stress. In his study, skin
conductivity and inter-beat interval were tested as two branches of
the autonomic nervous system: Results showed that both skin conduc-
tance level (SCL) and the frequency of non-specific skin responses were
lower in the wooden room in the baseline period. During the stressful
test period, skin conductance level did not differ between wooden and
non-wooden rooms. Generally, these studies focused on wood produc-
tions (panels or furniture) as well as the effects of the visual impact.
The above studies re-centered the focus of environmental effects
on people, especially as they relate to positive outcomes. Kaplan and
Kaplan [10] refer to these positive environments as “restorative en-
vironments.” Ulrich [11,12] conducted related research in health-
care facilities and found that patients recovering from stress due to
similar surgeries differed in their recovery and demands for pain
medication based on the view from their recovery room window.
In a study that involved built, indoor school environments, Grote
proposed that a wooden environment plays a positive role in im-
proving concentration and reducing stress [13]. However, there is
currently not enough data to prove that wooden indoor environ-
ments lead to recovery from stress. Thus, relevant restorative re-
search of wooden indoor environments is still lacking. At the same
time, research regarding the use of restorative environments in an
office setting is also insufficient to draw conclusions. The limited re-
sults in the current literature indicate that this field is in a nascent
stage. Therefore, it is important to conduct further investigation to
examine the effects of physiological responses to wooden indoor en-
vironments. Former studies usually selected blood pressure and
pulse rate as physiological indices and results showed that these
two indicators were sensitive to environmental change. In this
study, other parameters of the autonomic nervous system, vision
system, and respiratory system were also used to reflect the physio-
logical differences in wooden and non-wooden environments.
2. Methods
2.1. Experimental conditions
In order to simulate the office environment, five identically sized
rooms (L × W × H = 3.8 m × 3.2 m × 2.8 m) were established: one
preparation room, a basic room (non-wooden), and three contrast
wooden structure rooms. All rooms were free from decoration, ex-
cept for a worktable, a chair, and a laptop (Fig. 1). The envelope of
three wooden rooms were wooden frame and interior wood walls
were completely exposed (Fig. 2). More details can be found in
Table 1. Windows were opened for thorough ventilation during

Fig. 2. The pattern of the interior wood wall.

Table 1
Information of five experimental rooms.

Rooms Code Maintenance structure Interior wall Physical environment

Preparation room Non-wooden (steel concrete) 100% painted white T: 22–24 °C

Basic room TR Non-wooden (steel concrete) 100% painted white RH: 30–40%
Comparison rooms YR Wooden 100% dark brown wood 500 lx
RR Wooden 50% light brown wood and 50% painted white
PR Wooden 100% light brown wood

T, temperature; RH, relative humidity.

 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34 29

Table 2 they would remove their eye patch, adapting to the surrounding en-
Anthropometric data of the participants. vironment. ECG, SpO2 , skin resistance and skin temperature were
Gender No. Age (years) Height (cm) Weight (kg) BMI (kg/cm2) consistently measured, while blood pressure was recorded at 10
Male 10 26 ± 2 173.2 ± 4.2 66.6 ± 5.3 22.3 ± 1.8
(T10), 32 (T32) and 58 (T58) min into the experiment. Near visual
Female 10 25 ± 3 162.8 ± 3.9 55.2 ± 5.9 20.8 ± 2.0 distance was tested in both eyes at 2 (T2) and 52 (T52) min into
All 20 26 ± 3 168.0 ± 6.6 60.9 ± 8.0 21.5 ± 2.0 the experiment. During exposure, all participants completed work
Data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation (SD); BMI, body mass index. tasks twice: during the phase of 15–30 min (W1) and 35–50 min
(W2). The participants' work performance was evaluated according
to the quality and quantity of finished work and included five neuro-
Table 3 behavioral tests. (The results of working performance will not be
Arrangement of experimental sequence.a discussed in this paper.)
Order 1 YR TR RR PR
Order 2 TR PR YR RR 2.4. Physiological measurement
Order 3 PR RR TR YR
Order 4 RR YR PR TR
Physiological parameters such as electrocardiogram (ECG) measure-
a
Please see Table 1 for abbreviation definitions. ments, skin resistance, skin temperature, blood pressure, oxyhemoglo-
bin saturation (SpO2), and near-distance vision were measured. As
each experiment interval, which minimized the negative influence shown in Fig. 4, ECG and SpO2 data were recorded using
on the next participant. polysomnography (PSG, Somté, Australia), skin resistance continuously
recorded via a biological signal device called Powerlab (AD Instruments,
2.2. Subjects Australia). Blood pressure was recorded using a device (TKBP-H01) that
was uniformly worn on the left arm of each subject and measured three
G*Power analysis [14] was performed to determine the required times, respectively for the 10th minutes, 32nd minutes and 58th mi-
range for the number of participants, the minimum number were re- nutes. Eye fatigue is closely related to environmental factors associated
quired 11 persons to ensure a balanced design. Eventually, twenty vol- with long working times, which is also related to changes in vision [16].
unteer participants (10 men, 10 women) were recruited to participate Hence, to measure near-distance vision, it used a ruler with millimeter
in the experiments. To exclude the influence of sex, age, weight, and precision and a movable cross. Subjects had their left and right eyes test-
other relevant factors [15], only healthy adults (around 26 years old) ed twice. Skin temperature was measured using PyroButton (OPULUS
participants were included. Subjects were excluded if they had the fol- Ltd., America) with a precision of 0.2 °C and a resolution of 0.0625 °C.
lowing characteristics: cardiovascular disease, skin disease, blindness, Participants' local temperatures were measured on seven body parts,
rhinitis, and women in the menstrual period, or were unfamiliar with the forehead, thorax, lower arm, hand back, upper leg, lower leg, and in-
using a computer. Table 2 summarizes their profiles. In addition, they step, and the mean skin temperature was calculated according to the
underwent a 30-minute training session prior to participating in the ex- following Eq. (1) [17]:
periments, which introduced how the physiological measurements
were conducted so that they could familiarize themselves with all pro- t msk ¼ 0:07t forehead þ 0:35t thorax þ 0:14t lower arm þ 0:05t hand back
cedures. All participants completed the full test successfully. þ 0:19t upper leg þ 0:13t lower leg þ 0:07t instep ð1Þ

2.3. Order arrangement and experimental procedure

There was only one subject involved in one test and a total of 80 tests
were conducted in the study (20 subjects and 4 conditions). We used
the Latin Square Design to eliminate the order effects, which means
every random 5 subjects should take the tests in one order and there
was a total of four different orders as shown in Table 3. Each subject con-
ducted the experiment at the same time in four days, and the test inter-
val between the first and second was 1 h.
Each experiment lasted 90 min, with 30 min in the preparation
room and 60 min in each experimental room (Fig. 3). First, each par-
ticipant was instructed to wear the instruments and have their blood
pressure recorded at the 15th minute as the initial value. Thereafter,
participants put on the eye patch and stabilized until the experi-
menter led them to the rooms. Physiological parameter testing
started after the participants were stable for 2 min, at which point
2.5. Statistical analysis
The experimental data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software
[18]. All data have been examined to be normally distributed. As each
subject experienced all the four test conditions (within-subject design),
we used paired t-test to compare the effects of exposure in non-wooden
and wooden environments. When the P value was b0.05, the results
were considered to be significant.
3. Results
3.1. Blood pressure
The measured systolic blood pressure indicated the physiological
change in different rooms. Mean value, standard deviation (SD), and P

Fig. 3. Experimental procedure.

30 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34

Fig. 4. Biological signal measurement devices (a) ECG measuring method (b) skin resistance measuring method (c) skin temperature measuring method.

values for all collected data are shown in Tables 4 and 5. Significant dif- value has been labeled) of four different rooms and lines represented
ferences in the mean value of systolic blood pressure for the four rooms the standard deviation. In the adaptation stage (T10), the mean systolic
were observed, although all the participants had similar conditions ac- pressure value range between 110 mm Hg and 120 mm Hg in all rooms.
cording to initial statistical data. Fig. 5 shows that the mean value of sys- The highest value of TR was nearly 120 mm Hg, while in the wooden
tolic blood pressure was higher when the participants were in a non- rooms (YR and RR) the mean systolic pressure values were almost the
wooden environment (TR) than in wooden rooms after they enter the same, with the lowest value being 113 mm Hg. After completion of
experimental room and entirely exposed to indoor environments. the first task at T32, the mean systolic blood pressure value increased
Four different points represented the mean value (each room's mean slightly in all four rooms. TR still had the highest value, exceeding
120 mm Hg; however, values in wooden rooms remained lower than
120 mm Hg. The same was demonstrated at T58 (after finishing all
Table 4 the tasks and following a break), but there was no significant change
P value of systolic blood pressure in four rooms during three phases. in systolic blood pressure in the four rooms. The higher mean value of
Phase P systolic blood pressure indicated that people felt more tension in this
T10 TR–YR 0.013*
environment. It was obviously found that the participants have a higher
TR–RR 0.026* value in the non-wooden room during the 60-minute exposure, no mat-
TR–PR 0.012* ter when they were working or resting.
T32 TR–YR 0.058
TR–RR 0.042*
TR–PR 0.051
T58 TR–YR 0.117
TR–RR 0.031*
TR–PR 0.036*
⁎ PN0.05

Table 5
Systolic blood pressure descriptive statistics in four rooms.

Time Room Mean Std. deviation

T10 TR 119 10.44

YR 114 7.83
RR 114 8.93
PR 115 9.46
T32 TR 122 13.41
YR 117 7.7
RR 116 8.98
PR 117 9.53
T58 TR 122 12.99
YR 118 9.4
RR 115 7.49
Fig. 5. Comparison of systolic blood pressure in four rooms during the 60-minute exposure
PR 117 10.21
process.
 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34 31

Fig. 6. Comparison of the four rooms in the visual near point distance.
Fig. 7. Comparing the four rooms with myopia vision near point distance.

3.2. Near-distance of the eyes
Results of near visual distance testing of participants were statistical-
ly analyzed based on the experimental design shown in Fig. 6. The mean
value of each room has been labeled (the points indicated it) and the
lines represented the standard deviation. It revealed that after the par-
ticipants had adapted to the surrounding environment at T2, the mean
value of near visual distance was slightly higher in three wooden
rooms than in the non-wooden one. However, there was no significant
difference between four rooms. Thus, to adapt to the early phase wood-
en and non-wooden rooms did not have a significant influence on a per-
son. And the near visual distance range was from 12 cm to 12.5 cm at
this time for both left and right eyes. Until after working and resting at
T52, the mean value of that in wooden room YR was significantly higher
than in TR (P b 0.05; Table 6). At the same time, left and right eye in the
same situation.
Further investigation of the near visual distance of myopia partici-
pants was shown in Fig. 7. The points and labeled value described the
mean value and the lines represented standard deviations. It illustrated
that at T2, the visual distance was much longer in three wooden rooms
than in non-wooden room for both left and right eyes. The values in
wooden rooms were all above 12 cm, significantly higher than those
in TR, as seen in Table 7.
It can be concluded that participants in wooden environments
would have a longer version distance, especially for the people who
had myopia. Additionally, wooden indoor environments had the poten-
tial of regulating the human eyes' fatigue.
3.3. Electro-dermal activity
Variation in SCL can sensitively reflect the status of the human cen-
tral sympathetic activity. Therefore, we can indirectly acquire data on
human emotions and levels of stress according to this parameter. Sixty
minute continuous measurement of SCL was divided into three phases:
Phase 1 (Adaptation), Phase 2 (Working), and Phase 3 (Recovery),
which were used for data calculations and analysis. Fig. 8 shows the
SCL variation between wooden and non-wooden rooms during these
three phases. First, the average value of SCL in the non-wooden room
(TR) was lower than other three wooden rooms during the adaptation
phase. As to complete the working task, pronounced differences be-
tween wooden and non-wooden environments appeared regardless of
the simultaneously increased mean values in all rooms (Phase 2). Dur-
ing the recovery phase, an increasing trend was observed for the
mean SCL value in four rooms but there were no significant differences
between rooms at this time.
Table 8 represents the P value of SCL of participants in the different
rooms, calculated with a paired t-test. Four different kinds of the points
represented the mean value and line indicated the standard deviations
(the mean value has been labeled). There was a significant difference
of the effect on wooden and non-wooden environments (P b 0.05) be-
tween TR and YR during Phase 1. Further, the effect on these two styles
of the environment also different between TR and YR during the work-
ing phase (Phase 2).
It can be found that wooden environments tend to produce less ten-
sion feeling than the non-wooden environment, especially during the
adaptation and working phases.
3.4. Oxyhemoglobin saturation
The results of SpO2 were measured and statistically analyzed as
shown in Fig. 9. Each point represented the mean value, and lines indi-
cated the standard deviation. The mean value of SpO2 was similar in four
rooms during the adaptation phase, and the range was from 95% to 96%.
After working, the value was slightly increased in all rooms. PR room
was significant higher (P b 0.05) than non-wooden room-TR during
this phase. Until during the recovery phase, the average value of SpO2
decreased fewer than 95% in four rooms, TR recorded the lowest SpO2

Table 6 Table 7
P value of near distance vision of the eyes during three phases in four rooms. P value of near eye distance of myopia in different rooms.

Time Rooms P Rooms P Times Rooms P Rooms P

Time 1 Left eye TR–YR 0.163 Right eye TR–YR 0.441 Time 1 Left eye TR–YR 0.002** Right eye TR–YR 0.001**
TR–RR 0.478 TR–RR 0.493 TR–RR 0.006* TR–RR 0.021*
TR–PR 0.283 TR–PR 0.491 TR–PR 0.03* TR–PR 0.12
Time 2 Left eye TR–YR 0.015* Right eye TR–YR 0.003** Time 2 Left eye TR–YR 0.003** Right eye TR–YR 0.005*
TR–RR 0.19 TR–RR 0.59 TR–RR 0.68 TR–RR 0.25
TR–PR 0.32 TR–PR 0.18 TR–PR 0.79 TR–PR 0.22
* *
PN0.05 PN0.05
** **
PN0.05 PN0.05
32 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34

Fig. 8. Skin resistance in four rooms during the Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3. Fig. 9. SpO2 in four rooms during three phases.

value and a significant difference in TR-PR (P b 0.05) was observed
(Table 9).
Results show that it has a more SpO2 level in the wooden rooms than
in non-wooden room when people carry on the work or rest. It means
wooden indoor environment could produce less fatigue, especially in
the full light wood covered room.
3.5. Electrocardiogram
The heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) data were col-
lected from the recorded ECG. In order to investigate the physiological
changes influenced by adaptation and working in wooden and non-
wooden environments, the analysis focused on two phases: the adapta-
tion phase (Phase 1) and the working phase (Phase 2). Participants' HR
(beats per min [b/min]) under wooden and non-wooden conditions is
given in Fig. 10, in which the points represent the average HR value
and the line describes the standard deviations. There was slight vari-
ance, from 80 b/min to 85 b/min between Phase 1 and Phase 2. The
mean HR value of participants when in the non-wooden room was
higher than when in wooden rooms at Phase 1, significantly different
from RR and PR (P b 0.05).
Fig. 11 presents the participants' HRV when they were in the wood-
en and non-wooden environments. The points represented the mean of
HRV and the line on the behalf of the standard deviation. In order to in-
vestigate the difference in HRV between the non-wooden room and
each wooden room, the P value of HRV under different conditions was
calculated with paired t-tests (Table 10). The results indicate that HRV
was slightly higher in TR than that in wooden rooms and that there
were significant differences between RR and PR (P b 0.05) at Phase 1
and Phase 2.
3.6. Skin temperature
By controlling the indoor temperature of the rooms the variance in
average skin temperature between wooden and non-wooden indoor
environments was explored. Fig. 12 describes the time series results of
the mean skin temperature measured in the four rooms. Each point rep-
resents the mean value of the corresponding time point. For all condi-
tions, there were no significant differences between wooden and non-
wooden rooms, and the average value range was from 32.2 to 32.6 °C.
According to the trend of the skin temperature in each room, the
mean value in TR was slightly higher than that in other three wooden
rooms. Moreover, there was an increasing trend in TR when participants
had their first working task. Compared to three wooden rooms, the av-
erage skin temperature change was relatively stable. The whole process
showed a slow, downward trend, and there was no significant change
during the working phases.
4. Discussion
In the laboratory experiment, the physiological responses of partici-
pants were measured separately and reflected the variation to both
wooden and non-wooden rooms. Previous work has documented that
rooms with different wood quantities would cause different responses
in autonomic nervous system activity, especially, the systolic blood
pressure index which was shown to be closely related to changes in dif-
ferent indoor environments [19]. However, this study was a short-term
study and lasted, only 90 s for each person. Thus this too short measur-
ing time was difficult to confirm physiological stability. In addition, only
several wood panels were put in front of the participants, which is less
enough to form an environmental impact.

Table 8 Table 9
P value of skin resistance during three phases in different rooms. P value of SpO2 during three phases in different rooms.

Phase P Phase P

1 TR–YR 0.029* 1 TR–YR 0.484

TR–RR 0.548 TR–RR 0.797
TR–PR 0.131 TR–PR 0.211
2 TR–YR 0.027* 2 TR–YR 0.266
TR–RR 0.597 TR–RR 0.251
TR–PR 0.163 TR–PR 0.046*
3 TR–YR 0.081 3 TR–YR 0.428
TR–RR 0.693 TR–RR 0.55
TR–PR 0.186 TR–PR 0.042*
* *
PN0.05 PN0.05
 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34 33

Table 10
P value of HR and HRV under different rooms.

HR HRV

Times Rooms P Times Rooms P

Phase 1 TR-YR 0.23 Phase 1 TR-YR 0.507

TR-RR 0.011* TR-RR 0.056
TR-PR 0.025* TR-PR 0.031*
Phase 2 TR-YR 0.613 Phase 2 TR-YR 0.235
TR-RR 0.088 TR-RR 0.046*
TR-PR 0.245 TR-PR 0.048*
*
PN0.05

Fig. 10. Heart rate in four rooms during the adaptation (Phase 1) and working phase
(Phase 2).
In this study, we achieved a comparative research between wooden
and non-wooden indoor environments. The mean value of participants'
systolic blood pressure in non-wooden rooms was continuously higher
than those in other three wooden rooms during 60 minute exposure, re-
gardless of whether they were resting or working. Furthermore, it dem-
onstrated that people's stress level tend to be higher when they were in
the non-wooden room. In other words, people in the wooden environ-
ment become less nervous.
Consistent with the evaluation of other physiological parameters,
ECG measurements, electro-dermal activity, near-distance vision, and
oxyhemoglobin saturation were assessed as physiological indicators
for exploring a wooden indoor environment. They also displayed
some significant variations responding to the environment change. Spe-
cifically, the ratio of near-distance vision was linked to the influence of
positive and negative effects on eye fatigue. For example, in the cases
of wooden and non-wooden rooms, the ability to regulate eye fatigue
in a wooden indoor environment is greater than that in a non-wooden
indoor environment, especially after work (Fig. 5). Moreover, the
same situation appeared in patients with myopia before and after
work (Fig. 6). In an experiment by Switkes et al. [20], the eye reaction
adjustment of subjects under different colored light conditions was in-
vestigated. The results showed a strong link with different wavelengths,
the adjustment that was potentially resulted from blue light with short
wavelength was less than from red light with a shorter wavelength. This
can be explained for the participants in YR (full dark brown wood
covered room), the near eye distances for both eyes were greater than
in the TR despite indoor illumination was controlled within a fixed
range.
Furthermore, the changes in SCL, HR, HRV, and oxyhemoglobin sat-
uration had a sensitive variation in relation to the wooden indoor envi-
ronment. These differences in physiological response were particularly
noticeable when people adapted to the indoor environment or when
they were working. The evaluation of the autonomic nervous system
parameters is mainly including the heart rate (HR), heart rate variability
(HRV) and skin conduct level (SCL). Medical studies have shown that
the autonomic nervous system activity, the vagus nerve activity mainly
affect the high-frequency component of HRV, and sympathetic nerve
activity mainly affects the low-frequency component [21]. Therefore,
frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability, the ratio of low fre-
quency and high frequency is a very important indicator. In 1970,
Tarchanoff discovered the human emotion or feelings could induce
skin conductance response [22,23]. The study found that people chang-
es in skin conductance responses have an obvious relationship with
sweat gland activity. This is one of the responses of the sympathetic ner-
vous activity index, and also an important indicator of emotional re-
sponse research. The concentration of blood oxygen saturation (SPO2)
is one of the important physiological parameters of the respiratory
cycle. Research shows that when SPO2 is low, people feel fatigue, the
mental cognitive decline [24,25].
Under such conditions, there was a lower value in HR and HRV
while simultaneously existed a higher level of SpO2 and SCL in the
wooden rooms. Thus the participants were in a more relaxed and
comfortable state in a wooden indoor environment than in a non-
wooden one. There is evidence that indoor environment color has
the ability to affect human comfort and physiology. The results
given by Chanjuan Sun demonstrated that an office with interior

Fig. 12. Changes in mean skin temperature over time in response to wooden and non-
Fig. 11. Heart rate variability in four rooms during the Phase 1 and Phase 2. wooden rooms.
34 X. Zhang et al. / Physiology & Behavior 174 (2017) 27–34
plants was preferred to an office without any plants. The environ-
ments with green and slightly scented plants were reported as the
most favorite conditions [26]. In this study, it is confirmed that a
wooden indoor environment has the same positive function to
human health, especially for people at work.
5. Conclusions
Through objective physiological parameter measurement and analy-
sis as well as comparative investigation of physiological reactions be-
tween participants in wooden and non-wooden environments during
phases of work and rest, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. The five selected physiological parameters (ECG, blood pressure,
SpO2, SCL, and near distance vision) illustrated significant differences
when participants were in wooden environments. These may be
used as indicators of human physiological responses to wooden in-
door environments.
2. The mean value of systolic blood pressure in three wooden rooms
was lower than that in the non-wooden room during the working
and resting phases. The same trend was observed for SpO2, where
subjects in three wooden environments had higher SpO2 value in
the adaptation and working phases, implying that people felt less
stress and tension in this environment.
3. Wooden environments played an active role in regulating near-
distance vision, especially after the work phase. In addition, better
performance was verified for subjects with myopia.
4. Human HRV was sensitive to environmental changes. The partici-
pants in wooden environments had lower HRV value during the
working phase, compared to the non-wooden environment, which
means the sympathetic nervous activity was restrained, allowing
for the easing of tension.
5. During the adaptation and working phases, participants produced
less perspiration in three wooden rooms, especially in the full dark
brown wood covered room. The lower SCL showed that participants
were not easy to experience tension in three wooden environments.
However, there is a lot of work to be done for the exploration of the
wooden indoor environment in the future. Some differences of physio-
logical responses among three wooden rooms have not been presented
(such as full dark brown room has more regulation for participants'
near-distance of eyes, etc.).
Note: It is usually difficult to give concrete results about human
physiological responses by conducting survey alone with a small sam-
ple. The simultaneous experiment concerning human productivity re-
sponse to the wooden indoor environment has also been performed.
And their results have a good agreement with each other. Details
about productivity to the wooden indoor environment can be found in
its companion piece, which has been submitted to another journal.
Acknowledgments
This work is financially supported by Key Program of National Natu-
ral Science Foundation of China (51238005).
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