Physiological Emotional Responses Research Articles

Social Allostasis Regulation by Robots

Social allostasis, the process by which social interactions dynamically regulate psychophysiological states (e.g., emotions), is attracting attention. Social allostasis can significantly impact people's mental and physical wellbeing. However, adaptive social relationships are not necessarily available to all people. The use of robots is expected to solve this problem. In this paper, we present three studies of our group that prove the influence of social interactions with robots on human psychophysiological states. Our results showed that robots could amplify human subjective and physiological emotional responses through conversation, touch, and television co-viewing experiences. These results suggest that robots may be helpful for adaptive social allostasis regulation.

Feeling Virtually Present Makes Me Happier: The Influence of Immersion, Sense of Presence, and Video Contents on Positive Emotion Induction.

Immersive technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), have great potential for enhancing users' emotions and wellbeing. However, how immersion, Virtual Environment contents, and sense of presence (SoP) influence emotional responses remains to be clarified to efficiently foster positive emotions. Consequently, a total of 26 participants (16 women, 10 men, 22.73 ± 2.69 years old) were exposed to 360-degree videos of natural and social contents on both a highly immersive Head-Mounted Display and a low immersive computer screen. Subjective emotional responses and SoP were assessed after each video using self-reports, while a wearable wristband collected continuously electrodermal activity and heart rate to record physiological emotional responses. Findings supported the added value of immersion, as more positive emotions and greater subjective arousal were reported after viewing the videos in the highly immersive setting, regardless of the video contents. In addition to usually employed natural contents, the findings also provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of social contents in eliciting positive emotions. Finally, structural equation models shed light on the indirect effect of immersion, through spatial and spatial SoP on subjective arousal. Overall, these are encouraging results about the effectiveness of VR for fostering positive emotions. Future studies should further investigate the influence of user characteristics on VR experiences to foster efficiently positive emotions among a broad range of potential users.

Development and psychometric testing of a scale for assessing the psychological birth trauma.

Psychological birth trauma is widespread in postpartum women, and its harms are serious to mothers' health. Existing tools rely on posttraumatic stress disorder to evaluate, which cannot effectively evaluate its connotation. The aim of this study was to develop a new instrument for use to comprehensively assess the psychological birth trauma level of women after birth and test the scale's psychometric properties. The scale was developed and evaluated through item generation, expert consultation, pre-survey, and psychometric evaluation. A literature review, focus group, and individual deep semi-structured interviews were utilized to identify the scale items. The expert consultation evaluated the content validity. Psychometric testing was conducted in a convenience sample of 712 mothers within the first 72 h postpartum who were recruited from three hospitals in China. The total Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.874. Exploratory factor analysis supported that the final scale consisted of four dimensions and fifteen items. The explanatory variance of the four factors was 66.724%. The four dimensions are named "being neglected," "out of control," "physiological emotional response," and "cognitive behavioral response." The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the fit indices were all at acceptable and good levels. The 15-item Birth Trauma Scale is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate the psychological trauma of mothers who experienced spontaneous childbirth. The scale is a maternal self-assessment scale that can help women understand their mental health. Healthcare providers can identify key populations and intervene with them.

Affective computing of multi-type urban public spaces to analyze emotional quality using ensemble learning-based classification of multi-sensor data

The quality of urban public spaces affects the emotional response of users; therefore, the emotional data of users can be used as indices to evaluate the quality of a space. Emotional response can be evaluated to effectively measure public space quality through affective computing and obtain evidence-based support for urban space renewal. We proposed a feasible evaluation method for multi-type urban public spaces based on multiple physiological signals and ensemble learning. We built binary, ternary, and quinary classification models based on participants’ physiological signals and self-reported emotional responses through experiments in eight public spaces of five types. Furthermore, we verified the effectiveness of the model by inputting data collected from two other public spaces. Three observations were made based on the results. First, the highest accuracies of the binary and ternary classification models were 92.59% and 91.07%, respectively. After external validation, the highest accuracies were 80.90% and 65.30%, respectively, which satisfied the preliminary requirements for evaluating the quality of actual urban spaces. However, the quinary classification model could not satisfy the preliminary requirements. Second, the average accuracy of ensemble learning was 7.59% higher than that of single classifiers. Third, reducing the number of physiological signal features and applying the synthetic minority oversampling technique to solve unbalanced data improved the evaluation ability.

Robot touch with speech boosts positive emotions

A gentle touch is an essential part of human interaction that produces a positive care effect. Previously, robotics studies have shown that robots can reproduce a gentle touch that elicits similar, positive emotional responses in humans. However, whether the positive emotional effects of a robot’s touch combined with speech can be enhanced using a multimodal approach remains unclear. This study supports the hypothesis that a multimodal interaction combining gentle touch and speech by a robot enhances positive emotional responses. Here, we conducted an experiment using a robotic arm to perform a gentle touch combined with speech and compared three conditions: touch alone, speech alone, and touch with speech. We assessed participants’ subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and human likeliness using subjective emotional responses. Furthermore, we recorded facial electromyography (EMG) from the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles and measured skin conductance levels (SCLs) as physiological emotional responses. Our results show that touch combined with speech elicited higher subjective valence and arousal ratings, stronger zygomaticus major EMG and SCL activities than touch alone. The results suggest that the positive emotional effects of robotic touch can be boosted by combining elements of speech.

Cognitive, Emotional and Excitative Responses to Satirical News

ABSTRACT While satirical news has the potential to sway viewers’ political opinions, empirical evidence for these effects remains mixed. Although some studies have shown that satire consumption results in viewer attitudes being more in line with satirists’ positions, other studies did not. A possible explanation for these conflicting findings is the lack of clarity about the mediating processes that play a role in this relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the degree to which both self-reported as well as physiological cognitive, emotional, and excitative responses influence viewers’ attitudes when watching satirical news. We conducted a lab experiment in which participants watched either three satirical or three regular news videos about the same topics. Results showed that satire affected viewers’ self-reported and physiological cognitive, emotional and excitative responses. Nevertheless, viewers’ attitudes were mainly impacted through an affective rather than a cognitive or excitative route. More specifically, only positive emotions mediated the relationship between satirical (vs. regular) news on message-congruent attitudes, but in two opposite directions, which suppressed an overall direct effect on viewers’ attitudes. This indicates the need to differentiate between emotions with the same valence when studying effects of satirical news.

Anxious attachment style and consumer physiological emotional responses to human–robot service interactions.

Anxious attachment style and consumer physiological emotional responses to human–robot service interactions.

Vocal Synchrony of Robots Boosts Positive Affective Empathy

Robots that can talk with humans play increasingly important roles in society. However, current conversation robots remain unskilled at eliciting empathic feelings in humans. To address this problem, we used a robot that speaks in a voice synchronized with human vocal prosody. We conducted an experiment in which human participants held positive conversations with the robot by reading scenarios under conditions with and without vocal synchronization. We assessed seven subjective responses related to affective empathy (e.g., emotional connection) and measured the physiological emotional responses using facial electromyography from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major muscles as well as the skin conductance level. The subjective ratings consistently revealed heightened empathic responses to the robot in the synchronization condition compared with that under the de-synchronizing condition. The physiological signals showed that more positive and stronger emotional arousal responses to the robot with synchronization. These findings suggest that robots that are able to vocally synchronize with humans can elicit empathic emotional responses.

Sex Differences in Film induced Emotion: A narrative review

Humankind has been fascinated by perceived differences between men and women .There are several empirical literature on sexual differences in emotion .Film is considered as one of the most effective method to induce emotions in a laboratory settings. In this study, the sex -emotion debate from the results of 24 studies which induced emotions using films in experimental settings were analysed. The differences in expressive, experiential, and physiological emotional responses of men and women collected from the studies were assessed and the key findings across three dimensions: (a) overt actions; (b) subjective reports, and (c) physiological activity were summarized.

Emotion regulation abilities as a predictor of anxiety, positive emotions, heart rate, and alpha asymmetry during an impromptu speech task

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives Recent approaches suggest that emotion regulation (ER) abilities represent potential predictors of emotional response among youths navigating stressful situations. To test this, we investigated whether ER abilities predicted the subjective and physiological emotional response experienced by youths during a stressful situation. Design A cross-sectional design was employed. Method One hundred and thirty-four youths completed measures of ER abilities (emotional awareness, anxiety sensitivity, emotional control) and were asked to deliver a speech while their anxiety, positive emotions, heart rate, and alpha asymmetry were collected at four time points: baseline, anticipation, speech, and post-recovery. Results Pearson r correlations showed that poor emotional control and awareness, as well as high anxiety sensitivity were related to greater anxiety and lower positive emotions experienced during the speech. Hierarchical multiple regressions also revealed that emotional control and emotional awareness predicted greater speech anxiety and lower positive emotions. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity was related to and predicted an increased heart rate experienced during speech. Conclusions Findings suggest that difficulties in emotional awareness, anxiety sensitivity, and emotional control predict the emotional response experienced by youths during a stressful situation. Interventions delivered by clinicians/teachers that target ER difficulties may be effective in improving emotional functioning when navigating stressful situations.

Positive Emotion Amplification by Representing Excitement Scene with TV Chat Agents.

This paper proposes emotion amplification for TV chat agents allowing users to get more excited in TV sports programs, and a model that estimates the excitement level of TV programs based on the number of social comment posts. The proposed model extracts the exciting intervals from social comments to the program scenes. By synchronizing recorded video streams and the intervals, the agents may talk with the user dynamically changing the frequency and volume of upbeat utterances, increasing the excitement of the user. To test these agents, participants watched TV content under three conditions: without an agent, with four agents that utter with a flat voice, and with four agents with emotion amplification. Results from 24 young adult Japanese individuals showed that their arousal of participants’ subjective and physiological emotional responses were boosted because of the agents, enhancing their motivation to interact with the agent in the future. With empirical evidence, this paper supports these expectations and demonstrates that these agents can amplify the positive emotions of TV watchers, enhancing their motivation to interact with the agent in the future.

Consumers Emotional Responses to Functional and Hedonic Products: A Neuroscience Research.

Over the years, researchers have enriched the postulation that hedonic products generate deeper emotional reactions and feelings in the consumer than functional products. However, recent research empirically proves that hedonic products are more affect-rich only for some consumer segments or for specific consumption contexts. We argue that such inconsistency may derive from the nature of the emotions assessed that is strictly dependent on their empirical measurement and not from the mere existence of emotions themselves. Self-reported methods of evaluating consumer experience, on which prior studies are grounded, only assess conscious emotions the consumer can recognize and report, but not unconscious feelings, happening without individual awareness. The present work takes this challenge by conducting a laboratory experiment in which subjects are exposed to both a utilitarian product and a hedonic product. Physiological measures have been adopted to investigate unconscious emotional responses and self-reported measures to assess conscious emotions toward the products. Specifically, physiological data regarding the subjects’ cardiac activity, respiratory activity, electrodermal activity, and cerebral activity have been collected and complemented with a survey. Results confirm that both functional and hedonic products generate emotional responses in consumers. Further, findings show that when a consumer is exposed to a functional product, the physiological emotional responses are disassociated from the self-reported ones. A diverse pattern is depicted for hedonic products. We suggest an alternative explanation for the apparent lack of affect-rich experiences elicited by functional products and the need to reconsider emotional responses for these products.

Skin conductance response and emotional response in women with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures

PurposeRecent etiopathogenic models place emotional dysregulation at the core of psychogenic nonepileptic seizure (PNES). Our purpose was to assess physiological, cognitive, and behavioral emotional responses of PNES patients. MethodsThis study compared three types of emotional responses to visual emotional stimuli between 34 female PNES group and 34 matched healthy controls: physiological response measured by skin conductance response (SCR) (rate, amplitude and latency) and heart rate deceleration; cognitive response measured by valence and arousal elicited by the images; and behavioural response measured by latency of ratings. The groups were characterized on psychiatric comorbidities, traumatic history, alexithymia, and dissociation. ResultsCompared to controls, PNES group displayed lower SCR for all images (p = 0.038), shorter amplitude of heart rate deceleration (p = 0.024) and faster arousal rating for all images (p = 0.019), but no difference on cognitive rating of images. Within-groups analyses showed only in PNES subjects increased rate (+19.35%, p = 0.046) SCR for negative stimuli with strong arousal compared to negative with low arousal. PNES physiological response (SCR and heart rate deceleration) was negatively correlated to dissociation tendency (r=-0.48, p = 0.0083) and alexithymia (r=-0.44, p = 0.012)). For cognitive response, no correlation was found. ConclusionThese results are in favour of a lower physiological emotional response but with an over-reactivity at behavioral level contrasting with similar cognitive assessment. For strong aversive stimuli, PNES might present a trend to overreact at physiological and behavioural levels. Our results suggest that dissociation and difficulty in describing feelings are associated with an altered physiological response in PNES women only.

Sleep preserves subjective and sympathetic emotional response of memories.

Sleep consolidates episodic content of emotional memories. Whether it likewise preserves or, to the contrary, depotentiates the emotional response associated with memory content is unclear, as there is conflicting evidence. In the current study, we investigated the influence of an afternoon nap (2-hr nap opportunity) on emotional responses of memories using multiple simultaneous measures. Young adults viewed 45 negative and 45 neutral pictures before taking a nap (measured with polysomnography) or remaining awake. Following the nap or wake period, participants viewed the same pictures intermixed with novel ones and indicated whether they remembered each picture. Emotional response to each picture was measured at both time points both subjectively, with valence and arousal ratings, and objectively, with recordings of electrodermal activity, electrocardiography, and corrugator supercilii electromyography. Compared to waking, a nap led to preserved subjective valence for negative pictures and preserved/increased skin conductance response in general. On the other hand, heart rate deceleration response decreased over the nap compared to wake interval, and this result was not influenced by picture type. These data suggest that sleep consolidates aspects of both subjective and physiological emotional response associated with episodic memory content. While sympathetic response appears to be preserved over sleep, parasympathetic response may be diminished.

Cognitive Processing and Regulation Modulates Analogue Trauma Symptoms in a Virtual Reality Paradigm

To date, few studies have examined stress responses during or shortly after potentially traumatic events in real-time. In this study, a prospective Virtual Reality analogue trauma paradigm was used to assess peri- and post-traumatic stress responses in healthy individuals (N = 80). Here we compared a range of peri-traumatic psychophysiological responses following analogue trauma to a control condition. Furthermore, we aimed to identify essential regulatory mechanisms in response to an analogue trauma and their effects on subsequent analogue trauma symptoms. Therefore, we examined the impact of subjective and physiological emotional responses, cognitive processing, cognitive regulation and appraisal as well as flexible emotion regulation on analogue trauma symptoms. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that cognitive processing as well as cognitive regulation and appraisal predicted analogue trauma symptoms beyond psychophysiological responses, while flexible emotion regulation was uniquely predictive only directly afterwards. The findings provide evidence that flexible emotion regulation might be in particular protective directly after trauma exposure and highlight the general importance of peri- and post-traumatic cognitive factors in the development and maintenance of stress-associated psychopathology, thereby supporting cognitive models of PTSD.

Exploration of Web-Sites Affects Autonomic Responses Related to Unconscious Emotions.

In this work we are interested in analyzing any correlations between physiological parameters, extracted from signals such as Electrocardiogram, respiratory signal and Skin Conductance, and self-reported indices related to emotional or cognitive stimulations. For this purpose, an experiment involving twenty participants with a mean age of 25±5 years of both sexes (13 males and 7 females) was carried out. The protocol included the navigation in simulated web-sites and the vision of two different commercial products (utilitarian and hedonistic). At the end of the navigation, a questionnaire was submitted to the subject in order to measure his/her feelings and emotions in a qualitative and subjective way. Quantitative features were extracted from the physiological signals recorded during the execution of the protocol. We performed a correlation analysis between self-reported and physiological responses related to Arousal, Pleasure, Expectancy and Situational Involvement. Findings showed that when a consumer is exposed to a utilitarian product, the physiological emotional responses are disassociated from the self-reported ones. For the hedonistic product, instead, self-reported measures significantly correlate with physiological arousal features like the combined effect of cardiac and respiratory activity and the Heart Rate.

Skin conductance response to emotional stimuli and injury location in patients with single right hemisphere damage

IntroductionRight hemisphere damage (RHD) has been related to alterations in emotion processing. However, results regarding physiological responses are limited and inconsistent. More research regarding specific brain areas involved in emotional physiological responses is needed.ObjectivesTo examine the skin conductance response (SCR) to emotion eliciting images in patients with single RHD. To explore the relationship between SCR and brain injury location in patients with single RHD.AimsTo examine the relationship between SCR and cortical and subcortical damage in RH regarding emotional processing.MethodForty-one individuals with RHD due to stroke were assessed (mean age 68.5, SD 12.2, 51.1 males). The amplitude of event-related SCR was registered through a biofeedback system while observing 54 photographs from the international affective picture system (IAPS). Emotional images were classified using two different approaches: emotional valence (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) and social vs. non-social content. Brain damage location, determined through medical records, included cortical (frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes) as well as sub-cortical (caudate nucleus, thalamus, lenticular nucleus, insular cortex, basal ganglia and limbic system) structures.ResultsAmplitude of SCR to emotional images was significantly lower in individuals with occipital cortex injury compared to those with damage in other brain locations (P < 0.05). These results were consistent through all stimuli categories but non-social pictures, which presented the same pattern though, did not reach statistical significance.ConclusionsResults show a relationship between occipital areas in HD and SCR to emotional eliciting stimuli, suggesting occipital right lobe involvement in physiological emotional processing.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Association between risky behaviors in adolescents and altered psychophysiological emotional responses

Introducción. La psicofisiología de la respuesta emocional en la adolescencia es un factor clave en la comprensión de conductas de riesgo y desadaptación.Objetivo. Comparar especificidades de la reacción psicofisiológica emocional entre adolescentes con y sin conductas de riesgo.Materiales y métodos. Las medidas consistieron en la caracterización de conductas de riesgo (CR), variaciones en la frecuencia cardiaca (FC) electromiografía (EMG), conductancia de la piel (CP) y temperatura durante la presentación de estímulos emocionales visuales, así como la calificación en parámetros de valencia emocional, activación y dominancia de dichos estímulos.Resultados. Se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los adolescentes con CR comparados con aquellos que no las presentaban: se detectaron signos de mayor reacción psicofisiológica a los estímulos emocionales.Conclusiones. El grupo control se caracterizó por una bradicardia inicial más expresiva en comparación con el grupo con CR, ambos grupos mostraron desaceleración cardíaca más pronunciada ante estímulos desagradables, niveles más altos en EMG ante estímulos agradables en el grupo con RB e indicadores más elevados de CP ante los tres tipos de estímulo. Se requiere un estudio de cohorte a fin de comparar los hallazgos actuales en CR frente a la reacción fisiológica emocional entre los grupos de adolescentes.

Sensitivity of Physiological Emotional Measures to Odors Depends on the Product and the Pleasantness Ranges Used.

Emotions are characterized by synchronized changes in several components of an organism. Among them, physiological variations provide energy support for the expression of approach/avoid action tendencies induced by relevant stimuli, while self-reported subjective pleasantness feelings integrate all other emotional components and are plastic. Consequently, emotional responses evoked by odors should be highly differentiated when they are linked to different functions of olfaction (e.g., avoiding environmental hazards). As this differentiation has been observed for contrasted odors (very pleasant or unpleasant), we questioned whether subjective and physiological emotional response indicators could still disentangle subtle affective variations when no clear functional distinction is made (mildly pleasant or unpleasant fragrances). Here, we compared the sensitivity of behavioral and physiological [respiration, skin conductance, facial electromyography (EMG), and heart rate] indicators in differentiating odor-elicited emotions in two situations: when a wide range of odor families was presented (e.g., fruity, animal), covering different functional meanings; or in response to a restricted range of products in one particular family (fragrances). Results show clear differences in physiological indicators to odors that display a wide range of reported pleasantness, but these differences almost entirely vanish when fragrances are used even though their subjective pleasantness still differed. Taken together, these results provide valuable information concerning the ability of classic verbal and psychophysiological measures to investigate subtle differences in emotional reactions to a restricted range of similar olfactory stimuli.

Musical Tension over Time: Listeners’ Physiological Responses to the ‘Retransition’ in Classical Sonata Form

The tension–resolution patterns in music play a critical role in evoking listeners’ emotional experiences. We focus on an important tradition of using such patterns for theme recurrence: the retransition in Classical sonata form. A major function of the retransition is to prepare the theme recurrence in the home key. The present study attempts to examine the effects of musical tension at the retransition by combining music analysis with listeners’ physiological-emotional responses. During the first part of the retransition, loud chords with diminished intervals played in a minor mode elevated both the musical tension and listeners’ respiration depth. This tension was released before the beginning of the second part of the retransition, and thereby listeners’ respiration depth decreased. Moreover, listeners’ heightened expectations immediately before the theme recurrence was reflected by the increased heart rate and SCR amplitude. We also observed that listeners’ finger temperature seemed to reflect the changing level of relaxation in the retransition and the rewarding effect of the main theme. Findings are discussed in terms of acoustic communication in humans, ecological acoustics, and musical anticipation. We suggest that physiological measures provide a valuable tool for exploring the temporal dynamics of listeners’ emotional-aesthetic experiences.