An examination of the effects of various noises on physiological sensibility responses by using human EEG

This study investigated human stress levels based on electroencephalogram (EEG) data and carried out a subjective evaluation analysis about noise. Visual information is very important for finding human’s emotional state. And relatively more previous works have been done than those using auditory stimulus. Since there are fewer previous works, we thought that using auditory stimulus is good choice for our study. Twelve human subjects were exposed to classic piano, ocean wave, army alarm, ambulance, and mosquito noises. We used two groups of comfortable and uncomfortable noises are to see the difference between the definitely different two groups to confirm usefulness of using this setting of experiment. EEG data were collected during the experimental session. The subjects were tested in a soundproof chamber and asked to minimize blinking, head movement, and swallowing during the experiment. The total time of the noise experiment included the time of the relaxation phase, during which the subjects relaxed in silence for 10 minutes. The relaxation phase was followed by a 20 — second noise exposure. The alpha band activities of the subjects were significantly decreased for the ambulance and mosquito noises, as it compared to the classic piano and ocean wave noises. The alpha band activities of the subjects decreased by 12.8 ± 2.3% for the ocean wave noise, decreased by 32.0 ± 5.4% for the army alarm noise, decreased by 34.5 ± 6.7% for the ambulance noise and decreased by 58.3 ± 9.1% for the mosquito noise compared to that of classic piano. On the other hand, their beta band activities were significantly increased for the ambulance and mosquito noises as it compared to classic piano and ocean wave. The beta band activities of the subjects increased by 7.9 ± 1.7% for the ocean wave noise, increased by 20.6 ± 5.3% for the army alarm noise, increased by 48.0 ± 7.5% for the ambulance noise and increased by 61.9 ± 11.2% for the mosquito noise, as it is compared to classic piano. The results of the subjective evaluation were similar to those of the EEG signal analysis. The results from this study may contribute to apply this method to actual products which are closely related to human-machine-interface (HMI) like air-conditioner, car, and so on. So, our experiment was designed for its own purpose.