Subjective and mobile EEG responses to wood-clad and drywall interior environments: An in situ crossover study

What the study found

Thirty-six students rested in a wood-clad pod and a drywall pod after a stress task, in a crossover design. In the wood pod they reported more nature connectedness, more restorativeness, better hedonic tone and energy, and less stress. The main frontal EEG measures did not differ between pods after correction for multiple comparisons.

Limitations

Preprint with a small student sample and 10-minute exposures; the pods differ in more than material (color, brightness, visual texture), so wood itself is not isolated.

Neurodesign interpretation

Wood interiors may support short-term perceived restoration, but this study gives no neural evidence for it, so physiological claims for wood should stay hedged.

Possible design implications

Hypothesis: wood-clad rest spaces may support perceived restoration after stress; claims about neural or physiological benefit should wait for peer-reviewed, better-controlled studies.

Study design

Preprint, not peer reviewed (in situ crossover study)

Population

Students, USA (University of Virginia). Sample: 36.

Setting

Two full-scale prototype pods, one wood-clad and one white drywall; 10 minutes in each after a mental arithmetic stressor

Field

Materials + haptics, Biophilia + restoration, Neuroarchitecture

Mechanism

Directed-attention fatigue / restoration, Human-nature affiliation

Spatial variable

Wood exposure

Keywords

wood exposure, directed-attention fatigue / restoration, human-nature affiliation

Notes and follow-up

Related records: ND-0081, ND-0082, ND-0083. Preprint status is deliberate in the record. Re-check for a peer-reviewed version before citing this anywhere public.