Evidence for human-centric in-vehicle lighting: part 3—Illumination preferences based on subjective ratings, eye-tracking behavior, and EEG features

Weirich, Christopher; Lin, Yandan; Khanh, Tran Quoc · 2023 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1248824

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Summary

This study, the third in a series on human-centric in-vehicle lighting, investigates the cortical mechanisms underlying lighting preferences. While previous parts established that mixed color temperatures yield the highest satisfaction, this research aims to decode the root causes of these preferences by correlating subjective ratings with objective eye-tracking and electroencephalogram (EEG) data. The authors seek to determine if specific visual objects drive preference decisions and whether cortical signals, particularly frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), can reliably distinguish between preferred and disliked lighting settings. The experimental design involved eight participants in a controlled laboratory setting. In the first session, participants viewed immersive 360° renderings of four distinct driving scenes (sunny city, dim forest, sunny countryside, and night in Shanghai). They adjusted six unlabeled sliders controlling hue, chroma, and lightness for focused and spatial luminaires to create their most preferred ("good") and least preferred ("bad") lighting settings. Emotional feedback was collected via semantic differentials and the Geneva Emotion Wheel, while gaze data was recorded at 120 Hz. In the second session, participants underwent an EEG recording while viewing binocular presentations of these previously defined good and bad lighting settings, paired with emotional benchmark images from the Geneva Affective Picture Database. EEG signals were filtered and analyzed for event-related potentials and power spectral density in the alpha band. Results indicated significant differences in lighting parameters between good and bad settings. Good settings featured neutral white correlated color temperatures (3,300–5,300 K) with lower saturation and brightness, whereas bad settings were characterized by highly saturated, warm-reddish hues (below 3,000 K) with high brightness. Eye-tracking data revealed that participants fixated significantly longer on central vehicle windows and an in-vehicle fruit table with a blue jacket compared to other areas. Notably, visit duration was significantly shorter for bad lighting settings. EEG analysis demonstrated that maximum power spectral density in the alpha band successfully separated positive from negative luminaire settings based solely on cortical activity. However, the study found that external scene context influenced emotional bias; in two monotonous external scenes, lighting preferences followed expected emotional trends, but in more interesting external scenes, the external environment’s emotional impact overrode the lighting’s effect. The study concludes that cortical features, specifically frontal alpha asymmetry, can effectively decode subjective lighting preferences, extending the field into neuroaesthetics. It confirms that visual attention is drawn to specific colorful objects and central windows, influencing preference judgments. The findings suggest that while in-vehicle lighting significantly impacts emotional response, its effect can be modulated by the external driving environment. This provides a physiological basis for designing human-centric automotive lighting systems that align with natural visual and emotional processing.

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data