Capacity of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response on the Reduction of Mental Stress

Figures

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  Figure 1. The experimental setup and mental task. Subjects sat on the chair and performed the mental task. The 40 × 40 size mazes printed on A4 paper were employed as our mental task, and the subject continuously solved them for 3 min. An Emotiv EPOC+ (14 channels) was utilized to measure human EEG. In the experiment, the ASMR sound was given by a headphone.

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  Figure 2. Experimental condition for evaluation of the effect of ASMR on the mental stress. We use resting condition(rest), and three types of evaluation condition: sole application of ASMR sound (ASMR), sole application of maze tasks (Task), and simultaneous application of maze task and ASMR sound (Task + ASMR). NASA-TLX is performed after Task and Task + ASMR. Duration of all of condition is 3 min. The evaluation conditions are assessed in random order.

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  Figure 3. Grand averages of the power spectrum during our experiments. The solid orange, purple, yellow, and green lines indicate the resting condition with open eyes, listening to ASMR sound with open eyes, performing mental tasks without any ASMR, and performing the mental task while listening to ASMR sound, respectively. Pale blue and red areas show alpha-band (6–13 Hz) and gamma (high beta, 25–38 Hz)-band activity.

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  Figure 4. Average power spectral response for alpha band activity in each experimental condition. Gray and black-filled circles are individual and averaged responses, respectively. Asterisks * and ** indicate p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 as evaluated by Wilcoxon ranked sum test with adjusting by Benjamini-Hochberg methods.

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  Figure 5. Average power spectral response for gamma band activity in each experimental condition. Gray and black-filled circles are individual and averaged responses, respectively. Asterisks * indicates p < 0.05 as evaluated by Wilcoxon ranked sum test with adjusting by Benjamini-Hochberg methods. Depicted in the same format as Figure 4.

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  Figure 6. Averaged workload calculated from NASA-TLX while performing the mental task without (left) and with (right) application of ASMR sound. Asterisks ** indicate p < 0.01 as evaluated by Wilcoxon ranked sum test.

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  Figure 7. Individual scores of the NASA-TLX for the performance of the mental task without (left) and with (right) application of ASMR sound. Asterisks * and ** indicate p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 as evaluated by Wilcoxon ranked sum test.