Goto Seiko, Gianfagia Thomas J, Munafo John P, Fujii Eijiro, Shen Xuting, Sun Minkai, Shi Bertram Emil, Liu Congcong, Hamano Hiroshi, Herrup Karl
1 Department of Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
2 Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
HERD. 2017 Jul;10(4):74-86. doi: 10.1177/1937586716680064. Epub 2016 Dec 18.
This study is to examine how viewing a Japanese garden affects Japanese patients with dementia.
In a previous study, authors explored the effect on individuals with Alzheimer's disease of viewing an indoor Japanese garden at a nursing home in the United States and reported that viewing the garden significantly reduced the heart rate, evoked short-term and long-term memories, and improved behavioral symptoms. However, it was unclear whether these effects were caused by the design of Japanese garden or unfamiliarity of the design to Caucasians.
We constructed a Japanese garden on the rooftop of a hospital in Japan and assessed with a total of 25 subjects on the following categories: (1) eye movement, (2) heart rate, and (3) behavior under four different conditions: (a) open view of the site before construction of the Japanese garden (the control space), (b) open view of the Japanese garden, (c) view of the Japanese garden through closed door, and (d) view of Japanese garden through closed door with the chrysanthemum scent. Findings/Results: Viewers' eyes scanned larger area while viewing the Japanese garden, and viewing the Japanese garden significantly reduced heart rate and improved behavioral symptoms than the control space. We also found that the effect of viewing the same Japanese garden differed across three conditions: the view through an open door, a closed door, and a closed door with added scent.
本研究旨在探讨观赏日式庭园对患有痴呆症的日本患者有何影响。
在之前的一项研究中，作者探究了在美国一家疗养院观赏室内日式庭园对阿尔茨海默病患者的影响，并报告称观赏该庭园能显著降低心率、唤起短期和长期记忆以及改善行为症状。然而，尚不清楚这些影响是由日式庭园的设计所致，还是因白种人对该设计不熟悉造成的。
我们在日本一家医院的屋顶建造了一座日式庭园，并对总共25名受试者在以下四类情况进行了评估：（1）眼球运动，（2）心率，以及（3）在四种不同条件下的行为：（a）日式庭园建造前场地的开阔视野（对照空间），（b）日式庭园的开阔视野，（c）透过关闭的门观赏日式庭园，以及（d）透过关闭的门并伴有菊花香味观赏日式庭园。研究结果：观赏日式庭园时，观看者的眼睛扫视的区域更大，并且与对照空间相比，观赏日式庭园能显著降低心率并改善行为症状。我们还发现，在三种条件下观赏同一个日式庭园的效果有所不同：通过敞开的门观看、通过关闭的门观看以及通过关闭的门并伴有香味观看。
