The Psychophysiological Effects of The Fireplace

16th November 2023

Fire and human

• Fire is inextricably linked to human life.

• In addition, watching the fireplace appears to have induced relaxation, as indexed by increased alpha power.

• Real fire as a natural element may have some tranquil effects.

Escape from Stressful society

• People often seek the tranquil effects of natural elements, to escape from a stressful society.

• They also positively like to insert some natural elements into indoor spaces (e.g., wood, flowers, natural sounds, and fire).

• Fire is closely related to human life.

• Enjoying fire itself appears to be one reason to have a fireplace, in conjunction with being attractive interior accessories (Manago, 2004).

• A fire's psychological effects may contribute to an improved quality of life.

. Communication in front of fireplace

• There are few cognitive studies however, where a real-world material (such as fire) has been used as an experimental stimulus.

• Matsunami (2005) reported that a gas fireplace works to facilitate human communication.

• The distance between two participants who were strangers was smaller when sitting beside a working fireplace, compared to when no fireplace was present.

• Scores on a subjective scale in questionnaires measuring relaxation, healing, and familiarity was also higher in the presence of a fireplace.

• The flame is, of course, the most important aspect of a fireplace.

Brain activity on flame

• The brain activity of individuals observing a candle flame was measured using an electroencephalogram (EEG) (Kato, Mochizuki, Yamazaki, & Kobayashi, 2004).

• According to Kato et al. (2004), EEG alpha strength reduced in a real flame condition compared to seeing an artificial flame (in a movie).

• Genuine flames appear to produce discernible patterns of brain activity.

• Viewing a flame, on the other hand, caused changes in alpha power fluctuation that are connected to relaxation, according to Kato et al. (2005).

Flame influence

• The genuine fire or flame has an influence on relaxing as well as visual and higher cognitive functions.

• There was a potential in prior investigations that two phenomena reflected the task differences.

Overall

• In fact, there are many factors in the effects of a fireplace in the real life.

• Some of the major contributing factors include exterior appearances, radiation of warmth and the visual environment including a fireplace

• Maybe the most important factors will be visual stimulus and warmth.

• Those coherence or uniformity will be also important, to keep in touch with the facts of real life.

Summary 1)

.