The psychophysiology of interpreting emotional language in the audiovisual modality

This explorative study aims to examine if electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) are appropriate measures for identifying and monitoring academic emotions during learning in computer-based learning environments (CBLEs). Understanding learners' emotions while using CBLEs, allows improving the design of CBLEs. Therefore, we collected EDA, HR, and self-report data from 32 participants to measure academic emotions during learning with CBLEs in a laboratory setting. We induced negative academic emotions during learning using harmful connotated learning content about animal welfare. In a pre-post design, participants reported their emotional state before and after learning. We collated the self-reports with the EDA and HR curves to identify the emotional change in real-time. We prepared the data for repeated measurement analyses and group differences (high-, middle-, low learning performance; bored vs. not bored participants). Negative academic emotions were detected in increased EDA and HR. EDA turned out to be an indicator of learning performance. Boredom manifested in HR decrease. Findings show that EDA and HR are appropriate tools to measure academic emotions. We want to show the importance of real-time measures for learning and the efficiency of EDA and HR measures. It is worth considering EDA as a predictor for learning success and implementing EDA and HR measurements in CBLEs. However, more research is needed to clarify the role of HR in the context of learning performance.

Simultaneous Monitoring of ECG and EDA Using a Wearable Armband for Analyzing Sympathetic Nerve Activity

The use of electrodermal activity (EDA) measurement to understand consumer emotions – A literature review and a call for action

In this study we were interested to analyse the brain activity occurring during the "naturalistic" observation of commercial ads intermingled in a random order within a documentary. In order to measure both the brain activity and the emotional engage of the 15 healthy subjects investigated, we used simultaneous EEG, Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Heart Rate (HR) recordings during the whole experiment. We would like to link significant variation of EEG, GSR, HR and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measurements with the memory and pleasantness of the stimuli presented, as resulted successively from the subject's verbal interview. In order to do that, different indexes were employed to summarize the cerebral and autonomic measurements performed. Such indexes were used in the statistical analysis, performed with the use of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and z-score transformation of the estimated cortical activity by solving the associated EEG inverse problem. The results are summarized as follows: (1) in the population analyzed, the cortical activity in the theta band elicited during the observation of the TV commercials that were remembered is higher and localized in the left frontal brain areas when compared to the activity elicited during the vision of the TV commercials that were forgotten (p < 0.048). Same increase in the theta activity occurred during the observation of commercials that were judgment pleasant when compared with the other (p < 0.042). Differences in cortical activity were also observed for the gamma activity, bilaterally in frontal and prefrontal areas. (2) the HR and HRV activity elicited during the observation of the TV commercials that were remembered or judged pleasant is higher than the same activity during the observation of commercials that will be forgotten (p < 0.001 and p < 0.048, respectively for HR and HRV) or were judged unpleasant (p < 0.042 and p < 0.04, respectively for HR and HRV). No statistical differences between the level of the GSR values were observed across the experimental conditions. In conclusion, the TV commercials proposed to the population analyzed have increased the HR values and the cerebral activity mainly in the theta band in the left hemisphere when they will be memorized and judged pleasant. Further research with an extended set of subjects will be necessary to further validate the observations reported in this paper. However, these conclusions seems reasonable and well inserted in the already existing literature on this topic related to the HERA model.

Skin Conductance (SC) and Heart Rate (HR) are the two basic tools to evaluate any small physical change that occurred in the human body. Skin conductance demonstrates the electrical conductivity response of the skin. Skin conductance response is the evaluating tool of sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When external or internal sensations arise that are physiologically stimulating, the skin temporarily becomes a stronger conductor of electricity. Heart rate shows the beat to beat interval of our heart. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of various physical activities on skin conductance and heart rate. To this end, on the self-recorded data set of twenty subjects, the sample entropy is evaluated for the SC, and HR is evaluated. The mean value of skin conductance and heart rate was also examined along with the p-value to evaluate the impact of body positions on the skin conductance response and heart rate. For this purpose, the skin conductance response and HR is recorded for 10 minutes in the position of supine and standing simultaneously. By evaluating the results, it is observed that the value of skin conductance (SC) response and heart rate are increased as the activity is shifted from supine to standing. From the results, it is inferred that there is a substantial decrease in the sample entropy of SC and HR in the standing posture, which indicates an increase in the sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the standing position. A positive correlation is found between the response of skin conductance and heart rate when the position of the body is changed from supine (rest) to standing posture.

Autonomic arousal in adults who stutter prior to various reading tasks intended to elicit changes in stuttering frequency

There has been a growing interest recently in the psychophysiological correlates of interpreting affect-laden content. Such an examination could provide crucial insights into affective language processing in the highly cognitively taxing task of interpreting. We tested how professional interpreters process affect-laden and neutral content when interpreting. Using a multi-method approach, we employed psychophysiological measures (electrodermal activity and heart rate), response times and a self-report tool to study their emotional reactivity to negative, neutral and positive sentences. These were interpreted both from the participants’ native language (L1; Polish) into their foreign language (L2; English) and in the opposite direction. We found more pronounced physiological arousal and self-reported emotional states in response to affect-laden content compared to neutral sentences, which was observed in both interpreting directions. Behavioral results (response-time data) also supported these findings, showing longer processing times for affect-laden sentences than for neutral ones. The outcomes offer a novel contribution to the cognitive and affective dimensions of interpreting.

Author response: Robust group- but limited individual-level (longitudinal) reliability and insights into cross-phases response prediction of conditioned fear

The psychophysiological responses to laboratory stressors are often examined because it is believed that such responses relate to responsiveness in real life situations. This belief has seldom been tested. The changes in heart rate, pulse transit time, and respiration rate produced by a variety of laboratory tasks (active and passive coping and physical exercise) were related to ambulatory measures of heart rate in 32 young men. The field measures were the difference in heart rate between the waking day and when asleep, and estimates of the variability of heart rate during the day, derived from time series analyses. Average changes in heart rate and pulse transit time during specific tasks did not relate consistently to heart rate in the field. However, an active coping index, derived from the ratio of the peak heart rate during an active coping task to the peak during physical exercise related to all the field measures of heart rate responsiveness. This index, which may relate to measures of additional heart rate and heightened sympathetic response to stress, also correlated positively with Trait Anxiety and elevated basal sympathetic arousal, as measured by skin conductance level. Measures of the cardiovascular response to a passive coping task, the cold pressor, and exercise did not relate to heart rate responses in the field. The findings suggest that heightened cardiac responsiveness in real life is exhibited by subjects who show elevated peak responses to active coping stressors specifically.

The differential effects of agency on fear induction using a horror-themed video game

The emotional response to a threat is influenced by the valence of other stimuli in the environment. This emotional modulation of the threat-elicited response occurs even when negative valence stimuli are not consciously perceived. Relatively little prior research has investigated whether nonconsciously perceived positive valence stimuli modify the response to a threat, and the work that has been completed is in need of additional rigorous testing of stimulus and valence perception. The current study presented images of negative, neutral, and positive valence (1,000 ms and 17 ms durations), followed by a mask. A startle probe (100 dB whitenoise) was presented during 33% of each trial type while eyeblink electromyography (EMG) and skin conductance response (SCR) were measured. During the study, participants rated the emotional content of each image to assess valence perception. Participants accurately classified the valence of 1,000 ms images, but not 17 ms images. Further, participants performed at chance levels on an independent postexperimental forced-choice perception task using 17 ms masked images, indicating they were unable to perceive the valence and content of these images. Greater EMG and SCR were elicited by the startle probe during perceived and unperceived negative images compared to perceived and unperceived positive and neutral images. In addition, perceived, but not unperceived positive images diminished startle responses. The current findings suggest that images of negative valence potentiate the startle response in the absence of conscious stimulus perception. However, the attenuation of the startle response by positive images appears to require perception of the emotional valence of an image.

We examined abnormalities in physiological responses to emotional stimuli associated with long-term chronic alcoholism. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and heart rate (HR) responses were measured in 32 abstinent alcoholic (ALC) and 30 healthy nonalcoholic (NC) men and women undergoing an emotional memory task in an MRI scanner. The task required participants to remember the identity of two emotionally-valenced faces presented at the onset of each trial during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. After viewing the faces, participants saw a distractor image (an alcoholic beverage, nonalcoholic beverage, or scrambled image) followed by a single probe face. The task was to decide whether the probe face matched one of the two encoded faces. Skin conductance measurements (before and after the encoded faces, distractor, and probe) were obtained from electrodes on the index and middle fingers on the left hand. HR measurements (beats per minute before and after the encoded faces, distractor, and probe) were obtained by a pulse oximeter placed on the little finger on the left hand. We expected that, relative to NC participants, the ALC participants would show reduced SCR and HR responses to the face stimuli, and that we would identify greater reactivity to the alcoholic beverage stimuli than to the distractor stimuli unrelated to alcohol. While the beverage type did not differentiate the groups, the ALC group did have reduced skin conductance and HR responses to elements of the task, as compared to the NC group.

Audio subtitling (AST) is a media accessibility service that allows for people who are blind, partially sighted or with any reading disability to access written subtitles in their aural form. Despite the existing literature on other media accessibility services such as audio description, the way written subtitles compare to orally delivered subtitles has not been researched. In this study, a group of 42 blind and partially sighted participants and a group of 42 sighted participants watched the same three video clips. Two of them pictured two emotions (sadness and fear) and the third was emotionally neutral. The clips were prepared with subtitles or audio subtitles, according to the target participants. The emotional effect of the clips was measured in two ways: with self-reports, by completing after each clip the SAM questionnaire (Bradley &amp; Lang, 1994); and with psychophysiological measures: electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), that were recorded while participants watched each clip. The analyses of the data obtained in both experiments indicate that self-report measures revealed similar experiences for both blind and sighted participants, differentiating between valence (negative for fear and sadness, but not for neutral) and arousal (deemed higher for fear than for sadness and neutral). Data from EDA and HR measures are less conclusive.

Робота присвячена розробці пристрою для контролю бадьорості. Виходячи з переваг та недоліків&#13;\nіснуючих систем та методик була розроблена структурна схема системи контролю бадьорості та обґрунтовано вибір&#13;\nкомпонентів системи.&#13;\nНедостатня людська увага на робочому місці може стати джерелом помилок або навіть катастрофи. У деяких&#13;\nпрофесіях сон під час виконання службових обов’язків є злісним проступком і може призвести до дисциплінарних&#13;\nстягнень, включаючи звільнення.&#13;\nСон на роботі є важливою проблемою, і про нього часто говорять у правилах компанії. Контроль за працівниками проводиться з метою запобігання погіршенню роботи, погіршенню зовнішнього вигляду працівників та можливості небезпечної ситуації.&#13;\nДля вирішення деяких перелічених вище проблем була створена електронна система, яка контролює фізіологічний стан людини за допомогою датчиків&#13;\nМетою роботи є розробка системи управління енергією людини. Система повинна бути мобільною та зручною&#13;\nдля користувача, не втручаючись в обов'язки працівника.&#13;\nОдин з найефективніших методів контролю виникнення емоційної активності у людини заснований на&#13;\nвимірюванні електродермальної активності (ЕДА). Цей метод визначає електричну активність шкіри на долонях&#13;\nабо пальцях. Ці частини тіла багаті на особливий тип потових залоз, які називаються екринними. Головна перевага&#13;\n- точність вимірювання.&#13;\nНа основі особливостей методів контролю бадьорості для розробленої електронної системи контролю пильності&#13;\nбули обрані наступні методи контролю енергії: Фотоплетизмографія; Вимірювання електродермальної активності,&#13;\nвимірювання температури.

Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a widely used psychophysiological measurement in laboratory-based studies. In recent times, these measurements have seen a transfer from the laboratory to wearable devices due to the simplicity of EDA measurement as well as modern electronics. However, proper conditions for EDA measurement are recommended once wearable devices are used, and the ambient conditions may influence such measurements. It is not completely known how different types of ambient noise impact EDA measurement and how this translates to wearable EDA measurement. Therefore, this study explored the effects of various noise disturbances on the generation of EDA responses using a system for the simultaneous recording of all measures of EDA, i.e., skin conductance responses (SCRs), skin susceptance responses (SSRs), and skin potential responses (SPRs), at the same skin site. The SCRs, SSRs, and SPRs due to five types of noise stimuli at different sound pressure levels (70, 75, 80, 85, and 90 dB) were measured from 40 participants. The obtained results showed that EDA responses were generated at all levels and that the EDA response magnitudes were significantly (p < 0.001) influenced by the increasing noise levels. Different types of environmental noise may elicit EDA responses and influence wearable recordings outside the laboratory, where such noises are more likely than in standardized laboratory tests. Depending on the application, it is recommended to prevent these types of unwanted variation, presenting a challenge for the quality of wearable EDA measurement in real-world conditions. Future developments to shorten the quality gap between standardized laboratory-based and wearable EDA measurements may include adding microphone sensors and algorithms to detect, classify, and process the noise-related EDA.