The Feeling of Tokimeki: Happiness Spice Stimulating Brain Activity

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the psychological and biological effects, such as brain activity, of tokimeki when participants were looking at pictures of cosmetics. Tokimeki is a unique Japanese word that describes positive feelings and is used to express excitement and elation when moved by something. Pictures of attractive cosmetics significantly increased tokimeki scores, decreased ‘discontent’, and increased ‘happiness’ compared to those of control cosmetics. A significant difference between oxy-Hb changes when viewing attractive cosmetics was recognized in channel 15, which corresponds to the left orbitofrontal cortex. Electroencephalography in the occipital area revealed that the increase of β/α ratio when viewing attractive pictures of cosmetics was higher than for the control. Partial least squares regression analysis suggested that tokimeki induces activation in the left prefrontal cortex and increases β/α ratio in the occipital region. Therefore, this study revealed the effects on emotions and brain activity of tokimeki for women caused by looking at cosmetic pictures from multiple perspectives. Thus, tokimeki can be considered a pleasant stimulus to our mind and brain, a so-called ‘happiness spice’ in daily life. This study is the first step towards predicting the degree of tokimeki from brain activity. In the future, we are going to study in detail what factors enhance tokimeki and we hope that further studies give many people a tokimeki feeling, and improve their quality of life.