Sensory stimulation via the visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory systems can modulate mood and depression

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders, predicted to be the leading cause of disease burden by the next decade. There is great deal of emphasis on the central origin and potential therapeutics of depression whereby the symptomatology of depression has been interpreted and treated as brain generated dysfunctions filtering down to the periphery. This top‐down approach has found strong support from clinical work and basic neuroscientific research. Nevertheless, despite great advances in our knowledge of the aetiology and therapeutics of depression, success in treatment is still by no means assured. As a consequence, a wide net has been cast by both clinicians and researchers in search of more efficient therapies for mood disorders. As a complementary view, the present integrative review advocates approaching mood and depression from the opposite perspective: a bottom‐up view that starts from the periphery. Specifically, evidence is provided to show that sensory stimulation via the visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory systems can modulate depression. The review shows how—depending on several parameters—unisensory stimulation via these modalities can ameliorate or aggravate depressive symptoms. Moreover, the review emphasises the bidirectional relationship between sensory stimulation and depression. Just as peripheral stimulation can modulate depression, depression in turn affects—and in most cases impairs—sensory reception. Furthermore, the review suggests that combined use of multisensory stimulation may have synergistic ameliorative effects on depressive symptoms over and above what has so far been documented for unisensory stimulation.

Healing Spaces as a Design Approach to Optimize Emotional Regulation for Patients with Mood Disorders

“…Through the analysis of the design framework of the healing space, the healing structure, and the analysis of the space to stimulate the senses and the senses to promote emotional regulation, it is found that many factors of the healing space can stimulate the human senses in a purposeful, planned and directed way, and this sensory information will produce positive emotional results thus to the purpose of emotional regulation. Among them, Figure 3 shows the interaction process between senses and environment [43], Canbeyli, Rodriguez and Kross, and others have shown that perceptual experience influences emotional experience [15,44]. This paper through three cases demonstrates the process that the elements of space can interact with the human senses to stimulate them to produce perceptual information and eventually influence the brain's emotions.…”

“…In this process, the value of spatial environmental stimuli exceeds a certain threshold before they are perceived by the patient's senses and then transferred to the brain through "external to internal processing", acting on the emotional state. Canbeyli has shown that experiences involving the visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory systems significantly impact individuals' emotional and affective states [44]. These modalized experiences can sometimes be perceived as distinct sensory stimuli and have the potential to alleviate symptoms associated with mood disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and low mood.…”

“…In a study by Lindberg, 28 patients with mental illness were analyzed for their experience of using a sensory room (a space that provides different sensory objects to help regulate emotions, as Figure 4) in a psychiatric hospital [53]. The sensory stimuli in the sensory room in this study included relaxing music or nature sounds, soft lighting, plush Canbeyli has shown that experiences involving the visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory systems significantly impact individuals' emotional and affective states [44]. These modalized experiences can sometimes be perceived as distinct sensory stimuli and have the potential to alleviate symptoms associated with mood disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and low mood.…”

Linking Affective and Hearing Sciences—Affective Audiology

“…Another typical intersection of affect and audiology is auditory emotion perception. For example, hearing loss is shown to aggravate mood and induce symptoms of depression (for review, see Canbeyli, 2022 ). This may occur through direct pathways such as reduced perception of spectral, temporal, and amplitude acoustic cues critical for vocal emotion processing ( Barrett et al, 2020 ; Ren et al, 2022 ; Richter & Chatterjee, 2021 ).…”

A Comprehensive Study of Emotional Responses in AI-Enhanced Interactive Installation Art

“…The interactive nature of these installations can create a safe space for individuals to express and process their feelings. Canbeyli discusses the relationship between emotion and depression, where sensory stimulation via the visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory systems can modulate depression [32]. Gilroy proposed a framework for analyzing user experience in interactive art installations, which could help to identify when and how cathartic experiences occur [33].…”