Autonomic Emotional Responses Research Articles

Coherence and divergence in autonomic-subjective affective space.

A central tenet of many theories of emotion is that emotional states are accompanied by distinct patterns of autonomic activity. However, experimental studies of coherence between subjective and autonomic responses during emotional states provide little evidence of coherence. Crucially, previous studies investigating coherence have either adopted univariate approaches or made limited use of multivariate analytic approaches by investigating subjective and autonomic responses separately. The current study addressed this question using a multivariate dimensional approach to build a common autonomic-subjective affective space incorporating subjective responses and three different autonomic signals (heart rate, skin conductance response, and pupil diameter), measured during an emotion-inducing task, in 51 participants. Results showed that autonomic and subjective responses could be adequately described in a two-dimensional affective space. The first dimension included contributions from subjective and autonomic responses, indicating coherence, while contributions to the second dimension were almost exclusively of autonomic covariance. Thus, while there was a degree of coherence between autonomic and subjective emotional responses, there was substantial structure in autonomic responses that did not covary with subjective emotional experience. This study, therefore, contributes new insights into the relationship between subjective and autonomic emotional responses, and provides a framework for future multimodal emotion research, enabling both hypothesis- and data-driven testing.

Autonomic emotional responses to food: Private label brands versus National Brands

AbstractPrivate label brands (PLB) have been increasing both perceived quality and consumer acceptance in the last decades, which has compelled national brands (NBs) to invest in maintaining consumer confidence and preference. Recent economic crisis led consumers to become more price sensitive and more worried about cutting on daily needs, such as food consumption. However, taste is still one of the most important factor of decision for consumers regarding food products. Despite such importance of taste in decision‐making, most research on consumer senses still relies on traditional methods of surveying consumers, which are unable to measure the consumers' autonomic emotional reactions. The current paper uses a psychophysiological method to measure emotional arousal–electrodermal activity (EDA) and a self‐assessment manikin to measure pleasure. Emotions are then tested to assess their influence on perceived quality and willingness to buy (WTB). Findings show that NB are still perceived by consumers as superior, but consumers' WTB is not higher for NB. These results show that consumers' decisions are not always in favor of the product which is perceived to have a better quality which suggests that the “quality gap” is fading and the “branding gap” is gaining momentum.

Facial expressiveness and physiological arousal in frontotemporal dementia: Phenotypic clinical profiles and neural correlates.

Early theories of emotion processing propose an interplay between autonomic function and cognitive appraisal of emotions. Patients with frontotemporal dementia show profound social cognition deficits and atrophy in regions implicated in autonomic emotional responses (insula, amygdala, prefrontal cortex), yet objective measures of facial expressiveness and physiological arousal have been relatively unexplored. We investigated psychophysiological responses (surface facial electromyography (EMG); skin conductance level (SCL)) to emotional stimuli in 25 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, 14 semantic dementia (SD) patients, and 24 healthy older controls, while viewing emotionally positive, neutral, or negative video clips. Voxel-based morphometry was conducted to identify neural correlates of responses. Unlike controls, patients with bvFTD did not show differential facial EMG responses according to emotion condition, whereas SD patients showed increased zygomaticus responses to both positive and neutral videos. Controls showed greater arousal (SCL) when viewing positive and negative videos; however, both bvFTD and SD groups showed no change in SCL across conditions. Regardless of group membership, right insula damage was associated with dampened zygomaticus responses to positive film stimuli. Change in arousal (SCL) was associated with lower integrity of the caudate, amygdala, and temporal pole. Our results demonstrate that while bvFTD patients show an overall dampening of responses, SD patients appear to show incongruous facial emotional expressions. Abnormal responding is related to cortical and subcortical brain atrophy. These results identify potential mechanisms for the abnormal social behaviour in bvFTD and SD and demonstrate that psychophysiological responses are an important mechanism underpinning normal socioemotional functioning.

Psychophysiological Responses to “Happy” and “Sad” Music

Lundqvist, Carlsson, Hilmersson, and Juslin (2009) presented evidence of differential autonomic emotional responses to “happy” and “sad” music in healthy adult listeners. The present study sought to replicate and extend these findings by employing a similar research design and measurement instruments. Therefore, we used instrumental film music instead of vocal music, and assessed listeners’ music expertise. The present results show similarities and differences in patterns of psychological and physiological responses as compared to the previous work. Happy music evoked more happiness, higher skin conductance level, higher respiratory rate, and more zygomatic facial muscle activity than sad music, whereas sad music generated higher corrugator muscle activity than happy music. Influences of music sophistication as well as of sex were negligible. Taken together, these results further support the hypothesis that music induces differential autonomic emotional responses in healthy listeners. They also highlight the importance of replication or multi-site studies to strengthen the empirical basis of fundamental issues in music psychological research.

Abnormal psychophysiological responses to emotional stimuli in dementia

Event Abstract Back to Event Abnormal psychophysiological responses to emotional stimuli in dementia Fiona Kumfor1, 2*, Jessica L. Hazelton1, Jacqueline A. Rushby3, John R. Hodges2, 4 and Olivier Piguet1, 2 1 University of Sydney, School of Psychology & Brain and Mind Sciences, Australia 2 Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (ARC), Australia 3 University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Australia 4 University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School and Brain and Mind Sciences, Australia AIMS: Early theories of emotion processing propose that autonomic processing and cognitive appraisal of emotions are closely interlinked, with the perception of one’s own emotional state and recognition of emotion in others, occurring secondary to the experience of somatic sensations. Patients with frontotemporal dementia show profound social cognition deficits and atrophy in regions known to be important in autonomic emotional responses (e.g., insula, amygdala, prefrontal cortex). Here, we aimed to investigate whether psychophysiological responding to emotional stimuli is abnormal in frontotemporal dementia syndromes. METHOD: Twenty-three behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, 14 semantic dementia (SD) patients and 22 healthy older controls were recruited. Participants viewed 6 x 2 min video clips which were either emotionally positive, neutral or negative. Surface facial (zygomaticus and corrugator) electromyography (EMG), skin conductance level and pulse were simultaneously recorded using an 8/35 Powerlab Data Acquisition System. RESULTS: Unlike controls, patients with bvFTD did not show differential facial EMG responses according to emotion condition, whereas SD patients showed increased zygomaticus responses to both positive and neutral videos. Controls showed increased skin conductance levels when viewing positive and negative videos, however, both bvFTD and SD groups showed no change in skin conductance level across conditions. Finally, no differences in heart rate were found across groups, despite bvFTD patients showing elevated heart rate at rest. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that psychophysiological responses to emotional stimuli are abnormal in frontotemporal dementia, however, the nature of these differences varies across syndromes. While bvFTD patients show an overall dampening of responses, SD patients appear to show heightened physiological responses which are inconsistent with the emotional content of stimuli. These results identify potential mechanisms for the abnormal social behaviour in bvFTD and SD, and demonstrate that psychophysiological responses are an important mechanism underpinning normal socioemotional functioning. Keywords: Frontotemporal Dementia, emotion, electromyography (EMG), Skin conductance, Heart Rate, Psychophysiology Conference: ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Parramatta, Australia, 29 Nov - 1 Dec, 2017. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Abstract (General) Citation: Kumfor F, Hazelton JL, Rushby JA, Hodges JR and Piguet O (2019). Abnormal psychophysiological responses to emotional stimuli in dementia. Conference Abstract: ASP2017: 27th Annual Meeting for the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.224.00029 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 Oct 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Fiona Kumfor, University of Sydney, School of Psychology & Brain and Mind Sciences, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia, fiona.kumfor@sydney.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Fiona Kumfor Jessica L Hazelton Jacqueline A Rushby John R Hodges Olivier Piguet Google Fiona Kumfor Jessica L Hazelton Jacqueline A Rushby John R Hodges Olivier Piguet Google Scholar Fiona Kumfor Jessica L Hazelton Jacqueline A Rushby John R Hodges Olivier Piguet PubMed Fiona Kumfor Jessica L Hazelton Jacqueline A Rushby John R Hodges Olivier Piguet Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Developmental changes in autonomic emotional response during an executive functional task: A pupillometric study during Wisconsin card sorting test

ObjectiveThe autonomic nervous system has a deep relationship with the cognitive network when performing cognitive tasks. We hypothesize that autonomic emotional responses can affect cognitive function, especially executive function. The aim of this study was to clarify the involvement of the autonomic system during an executive functional task via developmental changes assessed using pupillometry. Subjects and methodsSubjects were 16 healthy children and 9 healthy adults. Children were divided into 3 groups (Group A, 7–9years; Group B, 10–14years; Group C, 15–17years). Pupil diameter was recorded using an eye mark recorder during cognitive shift (CS) during the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST). The rate of pupil variations was integrated and compared within each group, focusing on performance during CS. ResultsCategories achieved (CA) in the behavioral results of WCST increased with age, with significant differences between Group A and other groups. The change of pupillary diameter was increased with CS and decreased at the correct answers after CS in adults. Changes of pupillary diameter with CS showed a linear increase with age, and the pattern of the pupillary response at the age of 10–14years was comparable to adults. The integrated rate of pupil diameter with CS increased with age, and there was a significant difference between Group A and adults. In addition, the degree of mydriasis correlated with the number of CA. ConclusionThese findings suggest that autonomic emotional response play an important role as a part of the process for executive function.

Autonomic emotional responses to the induction of the rubber-hand illusion in those that report anomalous bodily experiences: Evidence for specific psychophysiological components associated with illusory body representations.

We present the first study to examine indicators of autonomic arousal associated with shifts in body image and as a function of predisposition to report spontaneous anomalous bodily experiences (ABEs) from nonclinical samples. Participants completed the Temporal-Lobe Experience subscale of the Cardiff Anomalous Perception scale-a measure associated with anomalous experiences resulting from temporal lobe dysfunction (Bell, Halligan, & Ellis, 2006) followed by a rubber-hand illusion experiment. We examined: (a) the time taken to induce the illusion, (b) effects on the tonic skin conductance level, and (c) phasic skin conductance responses in the form of nonspecific skin conductance responses (NS-SCRs) in the period leading up to the declaration of the illusion. The illusion took significantly longer to induce in those reporting high levels of ABEs, relative to those reporting low levels of such experiences. A significant increase in the tonic skin conductance level and the frequency of NS-SCRs occurred in the period leading directly up to the declaration of the illusion. Both measures were significantly increased for those reporting higher-levels of ABEs. The data question generic notions of "weak" body representations subserving increasing malleability in body image. Instead, they lend general support for a "dysconnection" account of anomalous bodily experiences-at least for some nonclinical hallucinators. Theoretical considerations are discussed.

Emotional responses to odors in children with high-functioning autism: autonomic arousal, facial behavior and self-report.

Although emotional functioning is impaired in children with autism, it is unclear if this impairment is due to difficulties with facial expression, autonomic responsiveness, or the verbal description of emotional states. To shed light on this issue, we examined responses to pleasant and unpleasant odors in eight children (8-14 years) with high-functioning autism and 8 age-matched typically developing controls. Despite subtle differences in the facial actions of the children with autism, children in both groups had similar facial and autonomic emotional responses to the odors. However, children with autism were less likely than controls to report an emotional reaction to the odors that matched their facial expression, suggesting difficulties in the self report of emotional states.

Cognitive and emotional functions of the teleost fish cerebellum

Increasing experimental and neuropsychological evidence indicates that the cerebellum of humans and other mammals, traditionally associated with motor control, is implicated in a variety of cognitive and emotional functions. For example, the cerebellum has been identified as an essential structure in different learning processes, ranging from simple forms of associative, sensory-motor learning and emotional conditioning, to more complex, higher-order processes such as spatial cognition. Although neuroanatomical and neurophysiological data indicate that the organization of the cerebellum is notably well conserved in vertebrates, little is actually known about the cerebellar contribution to processes besides the motor domain in non-mammals. In this work, we analyzed the involvement of the teleost fish cerebellum on classical conditioning of motor and emotional responses and on spatial cognition. Cerebellum lesions in goldfish impair the classical conditioning of a simple eye-retraction response analogous to the eyeblink conditioning described in mammals. Single unit extracellular electrophysiological recording and cytochrome oxidase histochemistry also reveal the involvement of the teleost fish cerebellum in classical conditioning. Autonomic emotional responses (e.g., heart rate classical conditioning) are also impaired by cerebellum lesions in goldfish. Furthermore, goldfish with cerebellum lesions present a severe impairment in spatial cognition. In contrast, cerebellum lesions do not produce any observable motor deficit as indicated by the swimming activity or obstacle avoidance and do not interfere with the occurrence of unconditioned motor or emotional responses. These data indicate that the functional involvement of the teleost cerebellum in learning and memory is strikingly similar to mammals and suggest that the cognitive and emotional functions of the cerebellum may have evolved early in vertebrate evolution, having been conserved along the phylogenetic history of the extant vertebrate groups.