The impact of virtual images of coastal landscape features on stress recovery based on EEG

Understanding how coastal landscape features influence stress recovery can provide valuable insights for designing healthier urban environments. This study aims to evaluate the psychological and physiological restorative effects of four types of coastal landscape features-coastal walkway, coastal mountain park, coastal plaza, and coastal beach-using immersive virtual reality simulations. 44 university students participated in a laboratory experiment involving subjective evaluations, heart rate variability, and electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements. The results demonstrated that virtual images of coastal landscape features alleviate mood disturbances and enhance perceived recovery. Specifically, autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses showed significant improvement: low-frequency to high-frequency ratio decreased by 8.47-20.20%, root mean square of successive differences increased by 8.41-27.83%, and the standard deviation of heart intervals increased by 13.05-25.07%. EEG findings further revealed reduced brain energy consumption, with total power decreasing by 0.83-9.10% and α relative power increasing by 2.76-28.51%. The virtual images of coastal walkway demonstrated the strongest restorative effect, especially in promoting optimal neural avalanche activity (12.70-18.17% improvement). Correlation analysis indicated a strong relationship between ANS and brain responses. Notably, this study innovatively introduced neural avalanche parameters to assess brain criticality states, offering a novel approach to evaluating environmental restoration. These findings contribute to environmental psychology by offering scientific evidence for optimizing coastal landscape design to support mental health and stress regulation.