Evaluation of comfort in subway stations via electroencephalography measurements in field experiments.

There is a growing body of research on the relationship between electroencephalography (EEG) and human comfort evaluation. However, most of these studies have addressed this relationship in a laboratory environment. In this study, we investigated the correlation between comfort level and brainwaves in a real-world environment. Field experiments were performed at two subway stations, a comfortable station and an uncomfortable station, to measure and compare the EEGs of 30 healthy students. The EEG signal patterns showed that the beta and gamma band powers were higher at the uncomfortable station than at the comfortable station. However, unlike previous studies where significant gamma bands activity was not observed, significantly high gamma band activity was observed in uncomfortable field environments in this study. In addition, in contrast to the results of previous studies, the alpha band activity did not increase in the comfortable field environment in this study. The present study shows that brainwave measurements can be used as an additional method to observe the responses of a participant in field environments that do not appear in laboratory experiments. • Beta and Gamma band power were increased significantly in an uncomfortable station. • Alpha band power was not increased in a comfortable station due to increased stimuli. • Real world sites contain more stimuli than laboratories. • EEG can be useful in detection of occupant responses to discomfort rather than comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]