Emotional State Research Articles

Using Ambient Scent to Enhance Well-Being in Teaching Environment

Emotional state can influence the dynamics of the learning environment. Both educators and parents need to acknowledge the integral role that emotions have in learning. Emotions are the embodied response to a stimulus. Phylogenetically, olfactory stimulation has unique relation with emotion. Hence, it is important to take the ambient smells surrounding us into consideration to enhance our “ Well-being”, which is defined as the combination of feeling good and functioning well; by experiencing positive emotions such as happiness and contentment as well as the development of one’s potential. It has been proven that aromatherapy using specific ambient scents is a positive tool in learning process affecting cognitive skills from one side and psychological condition for everyone involved. Aromatherapy is practiced via inhalation or topical application as a natural way of healing a person’s mind, body and soul. The practice will be depended on specific essential oils proven to have multiple aspects of neural and mental development, emitted from an aromatherapy burner - in both schools and homes- and continuously burned throughout the teaching period. Inhaling essential oils will stimulate the olfactory system. As the molecules would reach the brain, they will affect limbic system, which is linked to emotions, memory and stress, reflecting on the well- being of all who are involved in the learning process, building sustain and positive emotions of appreciation for the world around them.

Asthenia and vascular cognitive impairment in young patients after stroke

Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is found in most patients over 50 years of age. At a young age, PSCI has a negative impact on daily activities, quality of life and return to work, regardless of physical recovery. Often PSCI are combined with asthenia, but there is very little information on the prevalence of post-stroke asthenia (PSA). Currently, the treatment of PSCI and PSA in young patients with citicoline is still controversial.Objective: to evaluate the prevalence of PSCI and PSA in young patients and the efficacy and safety of the domestic drug Noocil (citicoline) in the treatment of PSCI and PSA in stroke patients of young age.Material and methods. The work was conducted in two stages: the first stage was a longitudinal study of cognitive status using neurocognitive scales and assessment of signs of asthenia in patients aged 18 to 45 years; the second stage was an open prospective observational study of 47 patients aged 18 to 45 years with confirmed ischemic stroke (IS) who were randomly assigned to groups with Noocil administration (main group; n=26) or without treatment (control group; n=21). Cognitive function was assessed by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and asthenia by manifestations of general fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, MFI-20).Results. High frequency of PSCI (51%) and the severity of asthenia according to MFI-20 scale were found in the hospital sample of young patients with IS. A direct correlation was found between the severity of PSA and the degree of cognitive decline. The positive effect of Noozil on cognitive functions, emotional state and severity of asthenia in the study group was noted. At the end of treatment, the mean MoCA score was 27.4±1.4 in the main group and 25.9±1.1 in the control group (p<0.01), and the mean MFI-20 score was 37.4±7.4 in the main group and 43.7±5.1 in the control group (p<0.01).Conclusion. The high incidence of PSCI and PSA and the positive effect of Noocil on the non-motor consequences of stroke in young patients and the high safety profile of the drug were shown.

A Study of Job Satisfaction of Hospital Staff in Hospital Ward

Introduction: Job satisfaction is defined as “a pleasurable of positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s bob experiences.” The primary objective of this study is to measure the level of employee satisfaction towards their job. Any employee in any organization has tow tips of job satisfaction. The first is in terms of money gain and second is in terms of mental gains. This study attempts to evaluate the overall job satisfaction of employee in tooth planet dental clinic. Job satisfaction is a result of employee’s perception of how well their job provides those things that are viewed as important. It is generally recognized in the organizational behaviour. Material and Methods: The study was conducted among the sample 20 respondents. Data collected through survey, interview and discussion and with the help of questionnaire, each question in the questionnaire must satisfy the objective of the study. Secondary data are those which have been collected by some other persons for his purpose and published secondary data collected though journals and annual report of the company. The project was carried our tooth planet dental clinic. The collected data were properly edited and processed by computer techniques using excel and word and was entered into a master sheet for analysis and interpretation. Finding and conclusion are based on interpretation of data presented in the form of tables and graphs. Results: In our study 90 % respondents is under 30 years old. 10 % employees under 30-40 years old and employs are under 40-50 years old and no one employees are above 50 years old. In this study 75 % respondents are satisfied with his salary whereas 25 % respondents cannot satisfy with their salary because they want more salary and 0% respondents can’t say anything. It can be interpreted that 20 % respondents say the company cleanness is good, 0 % respondents says the cleanness is somewhat good and 0 % respondents say that company cleanness is somewhat bad. Majority of the employee are agreed with the technology adopted by the organization to finish their work smoothly. Conclusion: Job satisfaction is a key aspect for success of every enterprise, when employees are satisfied work of performance will increase. Job satisfaction of employees in any organization is of paramount importance to achiever the targeted goals on a sustainable basis. The research on the subject has put that building of employee’s competencies and self confidence through training, feedback, and recognition should be a permanent activity of the organization. It is noticed that high job satisfaction is closely related to the feeling of effectiveness on the job.

Typical tactics of treatment of patients with chronic non-specific back pain and tension-type headaches

Non-specific (musculoskeletal) back pain (NBP) and tension-type headache (THA) are among the most common conditions in neurological practice that significantly impair patients' ability to work. The typical practice of treating patients with NBP and THA has not been sufficiently investigated, which formed the basis for conducting this study.Objective: to evaluate the quality of diagnosis and treatment of chronic NBP and THA in real-life neurological practice.Material and methods. The study included 120 patients with chronic NBP and combined THA of different frequency (32 men and 88 women, mean age 38.4±9.6 years) who were treated in A.Ya. Kozhevnikov Clinic of Neurologic Diseases (CND) of Sechenov University with complaints of back pain and headache and who had previously been examined and treated by neurologists and therapists in other medical institutions on an outpatient and/or inpatient basis. All patients underwent a clinical interview to establish a diagnosis and analyze previous treatment, a neurological and neuro-orthopedic examination and a psychometric examination to assess anxiety and depression symptoms.Results. Prior to contacting CND, only 10% of patients had a diagnosis of chronic NBS, only 7% had a diagnosis of THA and the remaining patients had other misdiagnoses. All patients had previously undergone additional examinations, mainly neuroimaging of the spine and brain, ultrasound examination of the neck vessels, even if there were no "red flags" – signs of danger in back pain and headache. None of the patients had previously had their emotional state assessed, while 75% of patients had symptoms of depression of varying severity and all patients suffered from anxiety of varying severity. Neuro-orthopaedic examination was performed in only 10% of patients. All patients received nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs for back pain, and most patients received vascular and nootropic medication for headaches. Of the non-pharmacological methods, massage and passive physiotherapy were most frequently prescribed. Only 9% of patients were recommended kinesiotherapy, and only 5% of patients performed it.Conclusion. In real-life medical practice, chronic NBP and THA are inadequately diagnosed, excessive and unjustified additional examinations are prescribed, unsatisfactory level of treatment, and patients with chronic NBP and THA are rarely prescribed kinesiotherapy.

Empowering Mental Health Monitoring Using a Macro-Micro Personalization Framework for Multimodal-Multitask Learning: Descriptive Study.

The field of mental health technology presently has significant gaps that need addressing, particularly in the domain of daily monitoring and personalized assessments. Current noninvasive devices such as wristbands and smartphones are capable of collecting a wide range of data, which has not yet been fully used for mental health monitoring. This study aims to introduce a novel dataset for personalized daily mental health monitoring and a new macro-micro framework. This framework is designed to use multimodal and multitask learning strategies for improved personalization and prediction of emotional states in individuals. Data were collected from 298 individuals using wristbands and smartphones, capturing physiological signals, speech data, and self-annotated emotional states. The proposed framework combines macro-level emotion transformer embeddings with micro-level personalization layers specific to each user. It also introduces a Dynamic Restrained Uncertainty Weighting method to effectively integrate various data types for a balanced representation of emotional states. Several fusion techniques, personalization strategies, and multitask learning approaches were explored. The proposed framework was evaluated using the concordance correlation coefficient, resulting in a score of 0.503. This result demonstrates the framework's efficacy in predicting emotional states. The study concludes that the proposed multimodal and multitask learning framework, which leverages transformer-based techniques and dynamic task weighting strategies, is superior for the personalized monitoring of mental health. The study indicates the potential of transforming daily mental health monitoring into a more personalized app, opening up new avenues for technology-based mental health interventions.

Urban Color Perception and Sentiment Analysis Based on Deep Learning and Street View Big Data

The acceleration of urbanization has resulted in a heightened awareness of the impacts of urban environments on residents’ emotional states. This present study focuses on the Lixia District of Jinan City. By using urban street view big data and deep learning methods, we undertook a detailed analysis of the impacts of urban color features on residents’ emotional perceptions. In particular, a substantial corpus of street scene image data was extracted and processed. This was performed using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) and semantic segmentation technology (PSPNet), which enabled the simulation and prediction of the subjective perception of the urban environment by humans. Furthermore, the color complexity and coordination in the street scene were quantified and combined with residents’ emotional feedback to carry out a multi-dimensional analysis. The findings revealed that color complexity and coordination were significant elements influencing residents’ emotional perceptions. A high color complexity is visually appealing, but can lead to fatigue, discomfort, and boredom; a moderate complexity stimulates vitality and pleasure; high levels of regional harmony and aesthetics can increase perceptions of beauty and security; and low levels of coordination can increase feelings of depression. The environmental characteristics of different areas and differences in the daily activities of residents resulted in regional differences regarding the impacts of color features on emotional perception. This study corroborates the assertion that environmental color coordination has the capacity to enhance residents’ emotions, thereby providing an important reference point for urban planning. Planning should be based on the functional characteristics of the region, and color complexity and coordination should be reasonably regulated to optimize the emotional experiences of residents. Differentiated color management enhances urban aesthetics, livability, and residents’ happiness and promotes sustainable development. In the future, the influences of color and environmental factors on emotions can be explored in depth, with a view to assist in the formulation of fine urban design.

Temat mody w prozie emigracyjnej Nadieżdy Teffi

The author focuses on the topic of fashion in Nadezhda Teffi’s work, a Russian writer who spent over thirty years in exile in France. An attempt to determine the function of “fashionable things” and the importance of fashion in constructing the presented world was made based on the analysis of short stories, tales and columns collected in emigration collections published from 1920–1952. Teffi's “costume code” includes all categories of clothing, footwear, accessories and jewellery that give an idea of the typical children's, men's and women's fashion of the last century. Clothing details play an important role in the structure of the presented world, fulfilling numerous functions: characterological, psychological and symbolic. Based on Teffi's texts, we can conclude what was considered particularly fashionable at that time, and also study the canons of beauty. Fashionable accessories, as an important part of the objective world of the writer's emigrant prose, are an integral part of expressing the characters’ individuality, indicating their origin, gender, and age, as well as their internal experiences and emotional state. At the same time, it also describes the cultural and historical background.

CosGCTFormer: An end-to-end driver state recognition framework

Driver state is critical for safety in mixed traffic environments with automated and human-driven vehicles. Recognizing and monitoring the driver’s state is essential to provide early warnings of abnormal driving performance. This paper proposes a driver state recognition framework called cosGCTFormer for end-to-end recognition of the driver’s emotional state and mental load. First, we employ an inverted residual convolution module to extract local features from physiological signal data. Second, the cosGCT module is introduced to extract global features. This module uses cos attention to address the high computational complexity of the Transformer in calculating attention weights. Additionally, it employs Gated Channel Transformation (GCT) to establish relationships between different channel dimensions, something the Transformer alone cannot do effectively. Finally, a simulated driving experiment was designed to collect data for training and testing the proposed method. Results demonstrate that our framework achieves higher accuracy and a more lightweight design compared to prevalent Convolution neural network-based (CNN-based) and Transformer-based methods. Additionally, the effectiveness of both modules was verified.

EEGER – A Model for Recognition of Human Emotion Using Brain Signal

Emotions significantly impact human thinking, judgment, health, and communication. EEG-based emotion detection has advanced with the use of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology, proving more effective than other physiological data. Despite progress in affective computing, emotion recognition remains a challenge. However, it's increasingly common in brain–machine interfaces, and research shows EEG brain waves are valuable in identifying emotional states. This research introduces a novel automated system for emotion recognition using deep learning techniques on EEG data collected from the GAMEEMO dataset, where participants played emotional assessment games. The system is designed to identify four emotions experienced during gameplay. The proposed model, called EEGER, was trained exclusively on EEG signals and demonstrated a 99.99% accuracy with minimal computational time. Key to its efficiency is the use of LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) classifiers, which simplify the process by automatically extracting relevant features. The system was tested across different learning rates and epoch values, showing that 10 epochs with a learning rate of 0.0001 were sufficient to achieve the best accuracy. EEGER was also compared with other methods like K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), outperforming them in both accuracy and efficiency. These findings suggest that EEGER offers a promising new approach to EEG-based emotion recognition, optimizing performance with lower complexity and computation time.

Pain Severity During Hysteroscopy by GUBBINI System in Local Anesthesia: Covariance Analysis of Treatment and Effects, Including Patient Emotional State.

Pain accompanying medical procedures can be considered in the "mind-body" problem of accounting for and describing the relationship between mental and physical processes (psyche and soma). Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the severity of pain among patients undergoing a minihysteroscopy procedure under local anesthesia using the "GUBBINI SYSTEM" (GUBBINI Mini Hystero-Resectoscope; Tontarra Medizintechnik, Tuttlingen, Germany) and to assess the association of various covariates with pain during the procedure, including patient emotional state. Methods: This study included 171 patients admitted to the Center for Hysteroscopy under Local Anesthesia at the Heliodor Święcicki Gynecological and Obstetrical Clinical Hospital of the Karol Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznań, Poland, for hysteroscopic treatment under local anesthesia (paracervical, using lignocaine). The Center for Hysteroscopy is the first certified "CENTER OF EXCELLENCE" of The International Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy (ISGE) in Poland. Results: A positive relationship was observed between alexithymia and its trait of difficulty identifying emotions and pain, as well as between perceived pain and one of the deficits of emotional processing-signs of unprocessed emotion. Conclusions: In conclusion, before the hysteroscopy, adequate information and counseling related to the procedure can effectively reduce the pain and anxiety levels of the women, and nurses can navigate this stressful process. Providing education and counseling to all women undergoing hysteroscopy, and explaining the procedure in detail, should be the preferred approach.

Effects of a 12-Week Mixed-Method Physical Exercise Program on Physical Fitness, Stress, Anxiety, and Quality of Life in Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy: A Case Series Study.

Although the health benefits related to physical exercise for adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) have been recognized, studies indicate that individuals with CP at school age are less involved in physical activities than their typical peers and are twice as likely to engage in sedentary behaviors. Therefore, our study aims to investigate the effects of a physical exercise program on physical fitness, stress, anxiety, and quality-of-life variables. A total of 15 teenagers with ambulatory CP (n = 8 boys, n = 7 girls, between 12 and 18 years old; M = 14.35; SD = 1.76) completed a 12-week program based on a mixed-method approach with face-to-face and live online activities. The outcome measures were physical fitness, stress, anxiety, and quality of life. The 12-week exercise program resulted in gains in muscular strength, flexibility, and aerobic endurance tests, characterized by an increase in average walking speed and average VO2 max. There was also a significant change in the perception of emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress reported by the participants. The program proved to be effective in physical fitness tests and perception of emotional states. Given the positive effects produced by the program, its design appears to meet the demands of adolescents with cerebral palsy.

AniBalloons: Animated chat balloons as affective augmentation for social messaging and chatbot interaction

Despite being prominent and ubiquitous, message-based communication is limited in nonverbally conveying emotions. Besides emoticons or stickers, messaging users continue seeking richer options for affective communication. Recent research explored using chat-balloons’ shape and color to communicate emotional states. However, little work explored whether and how chat-balloon animations could be designed to convey emotions. We present the design of AniBalloons, 30 chat-balloon animations conveying Joy, Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, and Calmness. Using AniBalloons as a research means, we conducted three studies to assess the animations’ affect recognizability and emotional properties (N=40), and probe how animated chat-balloons would influence communication experience in typical scenarios including instant messaging (N=72) and chatbot service (N=70). Our exploration contributes a set of chat-balloon animations to complement nonverbal affective communication for a range of text-message interfaces, and empirical insights into how animated chat-balloons might mediate particular conversation experiences (e.g., perceived interpersonal closeness, or chatbot personality).

Experienced emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and regulation depletion in collective team collapse and performance recovery situations

The collective collapse of a team’s performance is typically triggered by a critical event, such as performance failure or scoring of the opponent, evoking unhelpful emotions and their transfer between team members. These changes in emotional states also affect athletes’ cognitive processes and behaviors, maintaining the team collapse and prohibiting the team from recovering its performance. However, not every critical event and the emotions that accompany it evoke a team collapse, which is why athletes’ emotion regulation may play a key role in determining the performance outcome of a critical event for the team. To investigate this hypothesis, we conducted a retrospective-online survey study with 69 team sport athletes, assessing the emotion regulation strategies they applied in past team collapse vs. performance recovery situations, and how these strategies impacted them. We used quantitative measures to assess experienced emotions, individual and interpersonal emotion regulation, and depleting effects of emotion regulation in both situations and an open-ended qualitative question to assess interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in more detail. Athletes reported more unhelpful emotions and the increased use of affect-worsening and performance hindering individual and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in the team collapse compared to the performance recovery situation. Athletes further indicated higher levels of effort regulating emotions and higher depletion levels in the team collapse situation. Our results highlight the importance of individual and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in team collapse situations and indicate the use of more effective and less depleting strategies for sport teams to mitigate against a team collapse. Lay summary: This correlational study explored experienced emotions, individual and interpersonal emotion regulation, and its depleting effects in team collapse situations vs. situations where teams recovered their performance after a critical event. Athletes used inefficient, affect-worsening strategies, experienced more unhelpful emotions, and felt more depleted in team collapse vs. performance recovery situations.

The Associations of Sociocultural Pressure, Emotional States, Self-control, and Emotional Eating in Adolescents

The Associations of Sociocultural Pressure, Emotional States, Self-control, and Emotional Eating in Adolescents

Visual experience shapes bodily representation of emotion.

Philosophers and experimentalists have long debated whether bodily representation of emotion is grounded in our sensory experience. Indeed, we are used to observe emotional reactions expressed through the bodies of others, yet it is still unknown whether this observation influences how we experience affective states in our own bodies. To delve into this question, we developed a naturalistic haptic task and asked a group of early (n = 20) and late (n = 20) blind, as well as sighted individuals (n = 20) to indicate where in the body they perceive changes associated with affective states. Our results show that visual experience shapes bodily representation of emotion. Blind and sighted individuals attribute different importance to body regions in relation to specific emotional states, as sighted people focus more on visceral sensations, while blind report as more relevant the mouth and the hand areas. We also observe differences in the coherence of bodily maps of specific emotions, such as aggressiveness, for which early and late blind are homogenous in reporting the mouth, while sighted subjects demonstrate a scattered pattern of activation across the body. Finally, our findings show that blind people rely on a different organization of affect, as only sighted categorize bodily maps of emotion through the valence and arousal dimensions. In summary, we demonstrate that sensory experience impacts the bodily representation of affect by modulating the relevance that different body parts have in emotional reactions, modifying the weights attributed to interoceptive and exteroceptive signals, and changing how emotions are conceptualized in the body. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Occupational burnout of health care workers in a specialised COVID hospital setting

The aim is to evaluate the peculiarities of the development of professional burnout (PB) among physicians of therapeutic and surgical specialties, as well as middle medical workers, specialised red zones, as well as its prediction and prevention in this category of workers. Material and methods. The following groups of medical workers were examined: the 1st group consisted of doctors of therapeutic specialities (GPs) working in the red zone (n=111); the 2nd group consisted of doctors of surgical specialities (MDs) working in the ‘red zone’ (n=61); the 3rd group consisted of nurses working in the red zone (n=29); the 4th group – the control group included workers of engineering, technical and economic specialities not related to work in medical organisations (n=190). Professional burnout syndrome was assessed using the Maslach Burnout questionnaire and V.V. Boyko’s technique of diagnosing the level of burnout [4, 5]. The data were processed using Statistica statistical package by StatSoft (USA). Results. It was found that the work of therapeutic and surgical doctors, as well as middle medical workers of specialised red zones, is connected with the exposure of medical workers to a number of specific risk factors related to the provision of medical care to infected patients, as well as with significant changes in the work regarding aspects related to organisation, safety, which contribute to the increase in the level of stress and the increase in the level of SP. Conclusions. The work of physicians of therapeutic and surgical specialities, as well as middle medical workers of specialised red zones, is associated with an increase in the level of professional stress and the level of SP. It is necessary to continue the research of emotional state of medical doctors and average medical workers working in conditions of extreme epidemic situations with the purpose of timely preventive treatment for preservation of health of medical workers.

Anxiety and depression in papillary thyroid cancer patients: a longitudinal study.

Researches indicate that patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are prone to experiencing anxiety and depression. However, lacking of large-scale, prospective studies thoroughly examine the trajectory of these emotional states. Therefore, this study aims to investigate changes in anxiety and depression levels in PTC patients before and after operation and assess the impact of gender and menopausal states on emotional well-being. A prospective longitudinal study enrolled 320 PTC patients who completed the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) at pre- and post-operation. Paired-sample T-tests and logistic regression analysis were used to evaluate emotional changes and identify influencing factors. Anxiety and depression levels significantly increased (p = 0.028, p = 0.005) postoperatively, with incidence of 13.8% for anxiety and 26.9% for depression. Multivariate regression analysis showed that gender was a factor affecting depression (p = 0.041), and menopausal state significantly influenced emotions including anxiety and depression (p = 0.004, p = 0.031). Subgroup analysis showed that female patients exhibited higher levels of adverse emotions postoperatively compared to preoperatively (p = 0.003, p < 0.001). Postoperatively, female patients were more susceptible to anxiety and depression (p = 0.011, p = 0.029), and postmenopausal women were particularly at risk for depression (p = 0.017). The study highlights the importance of postoperative psychological care, particularly for female and postmenopausal patients. Larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods are needed for a comprehensive understanding of psychological changes in PTC survivors.

THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING: ANALYZE HOW EMOTIONAL APPEAL IN MARKETING AFFECTS CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Emotions play a pivotal role in consumer decision-making, influencing how individuals perceive, evaluate, and choose products or services. Emotional appeal in marketing taps into consumers' feelings, often bypassing rational thought to create strong associations with a brand or product. This paper analyzes how emotional appeal shapes consumer behavior by building brand loyalty, enhancing engagement, and driving impulse purchases. Positive emotions such as happiness, excitement, and belonging can foster long-term consumer relationships, while negative emotions like fear or anxiety can prompt immediate action. Through emotional resonance, brands not only differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace but also create memorable experiences that impact purchasing decisions. The findings suggest that successful emotional marketing strategies are those that align with consumers’ values, desires, and emotional states, highlighting the importance of understanding both rational and emotional drivers in shaping consumer behavior. KEYWORDS Emotional Appeal, Consumer Behavior, Brand Loyalty, Impulse Buying, Positive Emotions, Negative Emotions, Engagement, Emotional Marketing, Brand Differentiation, Cultural Sensitivity, Neuromarketing, AI and Emotion Recognition, Personalization, Social Media, Sustainability, Behavioral Economics.

Review Paper on “Jarvie: AI-Driven Mental Health Companion”

With the growing prevalence of mental health issues, many individuals still face barriers to accessing timely and effective support. This paper presents an innovative AI-powered Mental Health Companion aimed at providing personalized, real-time mental health assistance. By utilizing advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning models, the system interacts with users through meaningful conversations, offering customized coping strategies, mood tracking, and resource recommendations. The solution incorporates techniques such as sentiment analysis and adaptive learning to continuously refine responses based on user behavior and emotional states. The companion's effectiveness will be measured through metrics including user engagement, response accuracy, and its impact on emotional well-being. This scalable, on- demand tool offers the potential to significantly expand access to mental health support, reducing the strain on traditional services. Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Mental Health, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, Chatbot, Mental Health Companion, Sentiment Analysis, Conversational AI, Generative AI.

Auditory pallial regulation of the social behavior network

Sensory cues such as vocalizations contain important social information. Processing social features of vocalizations (e.g., vocalizer identity, emotional state) necessitates unpacking the complex sound streams in song or speech; this depends on circuits in pallial cortex. But whether and how this information is then transferred to limbic and hypothalamic regions remains a mystery. Here, using gregarious, vocal songbirds (female Zebra finches), we identify a prominent influence of the auditory pallium on one specific node of the Social Behavior Network, the lateral ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMHl). Electrophysiological recordings revealed that social and non-social auditory stimuli elicited stimulus-specific spike trains that permitted stimulus differentiation in a large majority of VMHl single units, while transient disruption of auditory pallium elevated immediate early gene activity in VMHl. Descending functional connections such as these may be critical for the range of vertebrate species that rely on nuanced communication signals to guide social decision-making.