Decoding Embedded Ambiance in a Historic and a Non-Historic Street: A Comparative VR Study of Brain, Body, and Mind

Although street ambiance, understood as a multisensory and cognitive experience, has been widely discussed in theory, empirical evidence on how it is perceived across specific urban contexts remains limited. This study explores the differences in ambiance-related responses between the two contrasting streets—one historic and one non-historic—by integrating brain, body, and mind measures within a controlled immersive framework. A VR-based, multimodal experimental protocol was employed, presenting participants with 360° audiovisual representations of two real-world streets. Data were collected using EEG, a wrist-worn physiological sensor, and self-report evaluations. Subjective responses consistently differentiated between the two streets’ ambiances, reflecting a coherent, environmentally grounded appraisal shaped by each street’s combined visual and auditory attributes. Neural responses clearly differentiated between the two streets, demonstrating that the distinct experiential character of the historic street was also reflected at the level of brain activity. Within the historic street, an asymmetric relationship emerged in which subjective evaluations differentiated ambiance more robustly than corresponding psychophysiological modulation, indicating context-dependent sensitivity across modalities. Taken together, the findings suggest that subjective and psychophysiological responses do not differ merely in magnitude but also in their mode of organization, revealing street ambiance as a multisensory and relational experience rather than the sum of isolated environmental attributes or historicity alone.