Computational Design of Therapeutic Digital Environments: A Deep Learning Approach to Personalized Mental Well-being Intervention
Leveraging Art-Psychology Cross-Innovation for Affective State Regulation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4108/eetpht.11.11067Keywords:
Computational Design, Mental Health, Deep Learning, Affective Computing, Therapeutic Digital EnvironmentAbstract
INTRODUCTION: The global rise of mental health challenges underscores the urgent need for personalized and non-pharmacological interventions. However, current digital mental health tools often depend on generalized design principles that overlook individual differences in aesthetic preference and affective response. This gap limits long-term engagement and reduces the effectiveness of affective regulation. To overcome these constraints, this study explores the integration of art-psychology principles with advanced machine learning techniques to create adaptive therapeutic environments.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to develop and evaluate a novel Computational Design Framework (CDF) capable of generating personalized Therapeutic Digital Environments (TDEs) through real-time affective feedback, thereby improving both user experience and therapeutic efficacy.
METHODS: The proposed framework combines deep learning–based aesthetic generation with dynamic environment optimization. A Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is used to produce personalized visual and auditory stimuli, while a Physiological Signal Processing (PSP) module analyzes real-time biosignals—including heart rate variability and skin conductance—to infer users’ affective states. A Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) model then adjusts TDE parameters based on both physiological and self-reported feedback. A controlled experiment involving 50 participants was conducted to evaluate the framework against static, generalized TDEs.
RESULTS: The DRL-optimized TDEs achieved a 25.3% greater reduction in physiological stress markers compared to static TDEs and yielded higher user satisfaction. Analysis revealed key design parameters—such as specific ranges of color saturation and sound frequency bands—that consistently correlated with positive affective shifts. The findings indicate the framework’s capability to identify and personalize aesthetic variables that influence emotional regulation within the current experimental scope.
CONCLUSION: This research establishes a replicable, data-driven methodology for designing therapeutic interventions that bridge subjective aesthetic experience with objective physiological outcomes. The proposed CDF advances cross-disciplinary innovation at the intersection of art, psychology, and technology, suggesting promising directions for personalized healthcare and computationally driven design practices.
Downloads
References
[1] Magomedova A, Fatima G. Mental health and well-being in the modern era: a comprehensive review of challenges and interventions. Cureus. 2025;17(1)
[2] Dianawati B, Ibrahim RA. Mental Health Care in the Global Era: Challenges, Innovations, and Future Directions. In: Proceedings; 2024. 4(1):1–13.
[3] Stiles-Shields C, Cummings C, Montague E, Plevinsky JM, Psihogios AM, Williams KD. A call to action: using and extending human-centered design methodologies to improve mental and behavioral health equity. Front Digit Health. 2022;4:848052.
[4] Lottridge D, Chignell M, Jovicic A. Affective interaction: understanding, evaluating, and designing for human emotion. Rev Hum Factors Ergon. 2011;7(1):197–217.
[5] Li W, Ma S, Liu Y, Lin H, Lv H, Shi W, Ao J. Environmental therapy: interface design strategies for color graphics to assist navigational tasks in patients with visuospatial disorders through an analytic hierarchy process based on CIE color perception. Front Psychol. 2024;15:1348023.
[6] Schindler I, Hosoya G, Menninghaus W, Beermann U, Wagner V, Eid M, Scherer KR. Measuring aesthetic emotions: a review of the literature and a new assessment tool. PLoS One. 2017;12(6):e0178899.
[7] Striegl J, Richter JW, Grossmann L, Bråstad B, Gotthardt M, Rück C, et al. Deep learning-based dimensional emotion recognition for conversational agent-based cognitive behavioral therapy. PeerJ Comput Sci. 2024;10:e2104.
[8] Hughes RT, Zhu L, Bednarz T. Generative adversarial networks–enabled human–artificial intelligence collaborative applications for creative and design industries: A systematic review of current approaches and trends. Front Artif Intell. 2021;4:604234.
[9] Steele RG, Hall JA, Christofferson JL. Conceptualizing digital stress in adolescents and young adults: toward the development of an empirically based model. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2020;23(1):15–26.
[10] Bower I, Tucker R, Enticott PG. Impact of built environment design on emotion measured via neurophysiological correlates and subjective indicators: A systematic review. J Environ Psychol. 2019;66:101344.
[11] Awad ZA, Eida MA, Soliman HS, Alkaramani MA, Elbadwy IG, Hassabo AG. The psychological effect of choosing colors in advertisements on stimulating human interaction. J Text Color Polym Sci. 2025;22(1):289–298.
[12] Johnson A. Sound Therapy. Publifye AS; 2025
[13] Siegel C. Materials and media in art therapy: critical understandings of diverse artistic vocabularies (Book review). Art Ther. 2011;28(3):146–147.
[14] Shi Z. Empowering Healthcare: Design-Driven AI Innovation and User Experience Optimization. BIG. D. 2025 Jan 1;2(1):25-32.
[15] Indovina P, Barone D, Gallo L, Chirico A, De Pietro G, Giordano A. Virtual reality as a distraction intervention to relieve pain and distress during medical procedures: a comprehensive literature review. The Clinical journal of pain. 2018 Sep 1;34(9):858-77.
[16] Becker-Asano C, Wachsmuth I. Affective computing with primary and secondary emotions in a virtual human. Auton Agents Multi-Agent Syst. 2010;20(1):32–49.
[17] Pouromran F, Lin Y, Kamarthi S. Personalized deep Bi-LSTM RNN-based model for pain intensity classification using EDA signal. Sensors. 2022;22(21):8087.
[18] Hauser TU, Skvortsova V, De Choudhury M, Koutsouleris N. The promise of a model-based psychiatry: building computational models of mental ill health. The Lancet Digital Health. 2022 Nov 1;4(11):e816-28.
[19] Liang J, Lu C. Leveraging Transformer Models for Predictive Analytics of Design Innovation Trajectories: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Market Success and Cultural Resonance. BIG. D. 2025 Apr 1;2(2):9-14.
[20] Gao S. Creative generation and evaluation system of art design based on artificial intelligence. Discover Artif Intell. 2025;5(1):118.
[21] Deb K. Optimization for Engineering Design: Algorithms and Examples. 2nd ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning; 2012.
[22] Braithwaite JJ, Watson DG, Jones R, Rowe M. A guide for analysing electrodermal activity (EDA) & skin conductance responses (SCRs) for psychological experiments. Psychophysiology. 2013;49(1):1017–1034.
[23] Collin CB, Gebhardt T, Golebiewski M, Karaderi T, Hillemanns M, Khan FM, et al. Computational models for clinical applications in personalized medicine—guidelines and recommendations for data integration and model validation. J Pers Med. 2022;12(2):166.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Ziyu Xu, Guanghui Huang

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which permits copying, redistributing, remixing, transformation, and building upon the material in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
