Cardiovascular changes during induced emotion: an application of lang's theory of emotional imagery

Shame on Me? Love Me Tender! Inducing and Reducing Shame and Fear in Social Anxiety in an Analogous Sample

Background

Shame is considered an important factor in the development and maintenance of many psychological disorders, e.g., social anxiety disorder, and an interesting target point for therapeutic intervention.

Method

In the present experimental study, we used an online-adopted Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (AEMT) to induce shame and tested different micro-interventions (self-compassion, cognitive reappraisal, and a control intervention) with respect to their potential to reduce shame intensity. One-hundred-and-fifteen healthy subjects participated in the study and completed a series of self-report questionnaires on self-compassion, shame, and social anxiety.

Results

The experimental shame induction was well accepted and successful (with significantly heightened feelings of shame); there were no study drop-outs. There was a significant time*condition interaction, which was due the self-compassion-based intervention resulting in a significantly larger reduction of shame than the control condition (counting fishes). In addition, the main effect of the factor experimental condition was further moderated (enhanced) by trait social anxiety and trait self-compassion.

Conclusion

The findings demonstrate the usefulness of online-adopted AEMT for the experimental induction of shame. They suggest that especially self-compassion interventions can be beneficial in alleviating intense shame experiences, which is in accordance with self-compassion theory. Overall, the results are promising in the context of experimental shame research and its potential clinical impacts call for further replication.

A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study investigated whether mourning is related to specific psychophysiological activation patterns. Therefore, we examined physiological reactions induced by iconographic mourning-related stimuli in comparison to neutral and attachment stimuli in healthy adults (N = 77, mean age: 21.9). We evaluated pupillometric and eye-tracking parameters as well as heart rate variability (HRV) and skin conductance (EDA). Eye-tracking revealed a stronger dilated pupil during mourning in comparison to the neutral, but not to the attachment condition; furthermore, fixation patterns revealed less fixations on mourning stimuli. While HF HRV was reduced during mourning and attachment, we found no differences concerning EDA parameters between conditions. Results suggest specific eye-movement and pupil adaptations during representations of mourning, which might point toward inward cognition or avoidance, but no specific physiological pattern concerning HRV and EDA.

Cardiovascular mechanisms underlying vocal behavior in freely moving macaque monkeys

Communication is a keystone of animal behavior. However, the physiological states underlying natural vocal signaling are still largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the correlation of affective vocal utterances with concomitant cardiorespiratory mechanisms. We telemetrically recorded electrocardiography, blood pressure, and physical activity in six freely moving and interacting cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Our results demonstrate that vocal onsets are strengthened during states of sympathetic activation, and are phase locked to a slower Mayer wave and a faster heart rate signal at ∼2.5 Hz. Vocalizations are coupled with a distinct peri-vocal physiological signature based on which we were able to predict the onset of vocal output using three machine learning classification models. These findings emphasize the role of cardiorespiratory mechanisms correlated with vocal onsets to optimize arousal levels and minimize energy expenditure during natural vocal production.

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Cardiovascular signals are measured telemetrically in freely moving macaques

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A distinct cardiovascular physiological signature is present before vocal onset

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Vocal onsets are phase locked to the Mayer wave and heart rate signals

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Vocal onsets prediction is performed using machine learning classification models

I Feel Different, but in Every Case I Feel Proud: Distinguishing Self-Pride, Group-Pride, and Vicarious-Pride

Various lines of research have hinted at the existence of multiple forms of self-conscious emotion pride. Thus far, it is unclear whether forms, such as self-pride, group-pride, or vicarious-pride are characterized by a similar feeling of pride, and what the communal and unique aspects are of their subjective experiences. The current research addressed this issue and examined the communal and unique characteristics of the subjective experiences of self-pride, group-pride, and vicarious-pride. Using recalled experiences, two experiments demonstrated that self-pride, group-pride, and vicarious-pride could be separated on the basis of their subjective experiences. More specifically, Experiment 2 demonstrated how self-pride, group-pride, and vicarious-pride were related to feelings of self-inflation, other-distancing vs. approaching, and other-devaluation vs. valuation. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that not only the responsibility for the achievement but also the number of people who had contributed to the achievement could influence the experience of other-oriented forms of pride. The current findings revealed that self-pride, group-pride, and vicarious-pride were all forms of pride with distinct subjective experiences. These findings provided valuable insights into the emotion of pride and might lead to divergent consequences for sociality, self-consciousness, and behavior.

Classification of the risk of internet gaming disorder by flow short scale and cardiovascular response

The American Psychiatric Association has identified Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a potential psychiatric disorder. Questionnaires are the main method to classify high-risk IGD (HIGD) and low-risk IGD (LIGD). However, the results obtained using questionnaires might be affected due to several factors. Flow can measure a person's state of concentration and cardiovascular signals can reflect the autonomic responses of a person. We propose to observe the cardiovascular responses and flow scores from the flow short scale of the HIGD and LIGD groups to assist questionnaires in IGD risk assessment. The preliminary study recruited 18 gamers from colleges. Games with the easy and hard levels were set to arouse desire for playing. The result showed that the flow scores of five HIGD participants were significantly lower compared with that of 13 LIGD participants. The stroke volume (SV) of the LIGD group during baseline (67.06 ± 11.61) was significantly greater that of (p < 0.05) while playing the easy game (64.08 ± 10.37) and playing the hard game (63.70 ± 9.89). For the LIGD group, the cardiac output (CO) during baseline (5.28 ± 0.97) was significantly greater (p < 0.01) than that of recovery (5.03 ± 0.83), and while playing the easy game (5.34 ± 0.98) it was significantly more than that during recovery (p < 0.05). For the HIGD group, a significant difference in the heart rate, SV, and CO was not observed. The changes in cardiovascular responses of the LIGD group are greater than that of the HIGD group. Gamers with LIGD might have a higher susceptibility to the negative effect of playing video games, but gamers with HIGD might not. The finding of this study might help psychologists to estimate the IGD risk.Clinical Relevance- This study investigated the differences in the score of flow short scale, self-assessment manikin, challenge/skill, emotional questionnaire, and the changes in the cardiovascular responses between the HIGD and LIGD groups.

Electrocardiogram-Based Emotion Recognition Systems and Their Applications in Healthcare-A Review

Affective computing is a field of study that integrates human affects and emotions with artificial intelligence into systems or devices. A system or device with affective computing is beneficial for the mental health and wellbeing of individuals that are stressed, anguished, or depressed. Emotion recognition systems are an important technology that enables affective computing. Currently, there are a lot of ways to build an emotion recognition system using various techniques and algorithms. This review paper focuses on emotion recognition research that adopted electrocardiograms (ECGs) as a unimodal approach as well as part of a multimodal approach for emotion recognition systems. Critical observations of data collection, pre-processing, feature extraction, feature selection and dimensionality reduction, classification, and validation are conducted. This paper also highlights the architectures with accuracy of above 90%. The available ECG-inclusive affective databases are also reviewed, and a popularity analysis is presented. Additionally, the benefit of emotion recognition systems towards healthcare systems is also reviewed here. Based on the literature reviewed, a thorough discussion on the subject matter and future works is suggested and concluded. The findings presented here are beneficial for prospective researchers to look into the summary of previous works conducted in the field of ECG-based emotion recognition systems, and for identifying gaps in the area, as well as in developing and designing future applications of emotion recognition systems, especially in improving healthcare.

This time it's personal: reappraisal after acquired brain injury

Reappraisal is a widely investigated emotion regulation strategy, often impaired in those with acquired brain injury (ABI). Little is known, however, about the tools to measure this capacity in patients, who may find traditional reappraisal tasks difficult. Fifty-five participants with ABI, and thirty-five healthy controls (HCs), completed reappraisal tasks with personal and impersonal emotion elicitation components, questionnaires measuring reappraisal (the ERQ-CA), and neuropsychological assessment. The main findings demonstrated that both groups produced more reappraisals, and rated their reappraisal ideas as more effective for personal stimuli. The ABI group were significantly faster to generate reappraisals for personal, compared to impersonal, stimuli. Yet, participants with ABI performed worse than HCs on the majority of reappraisal components, across both reappraisal tasks. Results of regression analyses revealed significant relationships between certain measures of cognitive control and certain reappraisal components, which varied for the personal and impersonal reappraisal task. Notably, while inhibition predicted aspects of reappraisal in both the ABI and HC group, working memory was only related to reappraisal in participants with ABI. The study suggests that personal context plays a key role in reappraisal, and proposes a model to better understand the role of cognitive control across the reappraisal process.

Affective State Assistant for Helping Users with Cognition Disabilities Using Neural Networks

Non-verbal communication is essential in the communication process. This means that its lack can cause misinterpretations of the message that the sender tries to transmit to the receiver. With the rise of video calls, it seems that this problem has been partially solved. However, people with cognitive disorders such as those with some kind of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are unable to interpret non-verbal communication neither live nor by video call. This work analyzes the relationship between some physiological measures (EEG, ECG, and GSR) and the affective state of the user. To do that, some public datasets are evaluated and used for a multiple Deep Learning (DL) system. Each physiological signal is pre-processed using a feature extraction process after a frequency study with the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and those coefficients are used as inputs for a single DL classifier focused on that signal. These multiple classifiers (one for each signal) are evaluated independently and their outputs are combined in order to optimize the results and obtain additional information about the most reliable signals for classifying the affective states into three levels: low, middle, and high. The full system is carefully detailed and tested, obtaining promising results (more than 95% accuracy) that demonstrate its viability.

Autobiographical emotional induction in older people through popular songs: Effect of reminiscence bump and enculturation

Aims

This study is based on two experiments, the first, with an exploratory character. The aim of which is to assess the capacity of native vs international pop songs (NAT vs INT) from two consecutive life stages, Reminiscence bump (RB) and the immediately subsequent period (No reminiscence bump, NORB) to elicit positive emotions and autobiographical memories.

Method

A total of 15 middle-aged adults and 15 older adults participated in Experiment 1 (E1). Emotionality, song familiarity and associated autobiographical memories were assessed. Each participant was exposed to 20 randomly selected age-specific songs. Pre-and post-test measures of mood state were also included. Experiment 2 (E2) focused on late adulthood, using a sample of 35 persons. The experimental design was similar to that used in E1. However, this second experiment also included an analysis of the types of autobiographical memories generated by the experimental task and a study of their relationship with the characteristics of the songs, their familiarity and the emotions they produced, and the number of trials. The aim was to delve into the effects that influence the effectiveness of the induction procedure, particularly as regards emotional positivity and memory specificity.

Results

Regarding age effect, E1 results varied: under some conditions, emotionality showed no difference between groups, others showed positive older adult bias. In E2, the analysis of the relationships between memory types and the selected variables suggests the latter are not useful predictors of differences between memory types. The study design yielded a relatively high level of memory specificity and emotional positivity.

Conclusion

The findings question positivity bias in the elderly. RB music produces different effects depending on age. Enculturation can be an important mediating factor in emotionality and memory. Finally, experimental design improves specific memory and positivity.

The serotonin 2A receptor agonist 25CN-NBOH increases murine heart rate and neck-arterial blood flow in a temperature-dependent manner

BACKGROUND

Serotonin 2A receptors, the molecular target of psychedelics, are expressed by neuronal and vascular cells, both of which might contribute to brain haemodynamic characteristics for the psychedelic state.

AIM

Aiming for a systemic understanding of psychedelic vasoactivity, here we investigated the effect of N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine - a new-generation agonist with superior serotonin 2A receptor selectivity - on brain-supplying neck-arterial blood flow.

METHODS

We recorded core body temperature and employed non-invasive, collar-sensor based pulse oximetry in anesthetised mice to extract parameters of local blood perfusion, oxygen saturation, heart and respiration rate. Hypothesising an overlap between serotonergic pulse- and thermoregulation, recordings were done under physiological and elevated pad temperatures.

RESULTS

N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine (1.5 mg/kg, subcutaneous) significantly increased the frequency of heart beats accompanied by a slight elevation of neck-arterial blood flow. Increasing the animal-supporting heat-pad temperature from 37°C to 41°C enhanced the drug's effect on blood flow while counteracting tachycardia. Additionally, N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine promoted bradypnea, which, like tachycardia, quickly reversed at the elevated pad temperature. The interrelatedness of N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine's respiro-cardiovascular effects and thermoregulation was further corroborated by the drug selectively increasing the core body temperature at the elevated pad temperature. Arterial oxygen saturation was not affected by N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine at either temperature.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings imply that selective serotonin 2A receptor activation modulates systemic cardiovascular functioning in orchestration with thermoregulation and with immediate relevance to brain-imminent neck (most likely carotid) arteries. As carotid branching is a critical last hub to channel cardiovascular output to or away from the brain, our results might have implications for the brain haemodynamics associated with psychedelia.

The neuroscience of sadness: A multidisciplinary synthesis and collaborative review

Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right frontal asymmetry in sadness, underpinning interest in the transcranial stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as an antidepressant target. Neuroimaging studies - including meta-analyses - indicate that sadness is associated with reduced cortical activation, which may contribute to reduced parasympathetic inhibitory control over medullary cardioacceleratory circuits. Reduced cardiac control may - in part - contribute to epidemiological reports of reduced life expectancy in affective disorders, effects equivalent to heavy smoking. We suggest that the field may be moving toward a theoretical consensus, in which different models relating to basic emotion theory and psychological constructionism may be considered as complementary, working at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy.

Reliability of Physiological Responses Induced by Basic Emotions: A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND

Although emotion-specific autonomic responses based on the discrete theory of emotion have been widely studied, studies on the reliability of physiological responses to emotional stimuli are limited. In this study, we aimed to assess the reliability of physiological changes induced by the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise) that were measured during 10 weekly repeated experiments.

METHODS

Twelve college students participated, and in each experiment, physiological signals were collected before and while participants were watching emotion-provoking film clips. Additionally, the participants self-evaluated the emotions that they experienced during the film presentation at the end of each emotional stimulus. To avoid adaptation of participants to identical stimuli during repeated measurements, we used 10 different film clips for each emotion, and thus a total of 60 film clips over 10 weeks were used. Physiological features, such as skin conductance level (SCL), fingertip temperature (FT), heart rate (HR), and blood volume pulse (BVP), were extracted from the physiological signals. Two reliability indices, Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient, were calculated from the physiological features to assess internal consistency and interrater reliability, respectively.

RESULTS

We found that SCL, HR, and BVP measured during the emotion-provoking phase over the 10 weekly sessions were more reliable than those assessed at baseline. Furthermore, SCL, HR, and BVP from the emotion-provoking phase exhibited excellent internal consistency and interrater reliability.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that these features can be used as reliable physiological indices in emotion studies. The results also support the significance of physiological signals as meaningful indicators for emotion recognition in HCI (human computer interface) area.

The effects of exposure on the generalization of habituation on multiple indices of disgust

Examination of habituation to disgust-related stimuli has received limited experimental investigation. In this study, 38 undergraduates were divided into two groups. The vomit-blood (VB) group was first exposed to a realistic approximation of vomit and allowed to habituate to this stimulus, while the blood-vomit (BV) group was first allowed to habituate to a realistic approximation of blood. Following the habituation phase, each group underwent a short exposure to the unexposed stimuli (blood in the VB group, vomit in the BV group). Physiological and self-report assessments were collected during exposure. Self-report habituation was observed for both groups. In addition, only muscle tension at the levator labii and heart rate in the VB group demonstrated significant changes that could be interpreted as habituation. Consistent with previous literature, muscle tension at the levator labii appeared to be a unique indicator of disgust responding. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Empathy and autonomic and hemodynamic cardiac responses

Abstract Hemodynamic and autonomic responses have been used as sensitive indicators of cardiovascular health in situations involving emotions. However, few studies evaluated these indicators when feelings result from vicarious experiences. This research aimed to verify if empathy measures would be associated with variations in blood pressure, heart rate, rate pressure product, and heart rate variability in young adults, after exposure to experimental situations. Results point out that hemodynamic and autonomic cardiac indicators were associated with dispositional and situational empathy. These results are discussed based on Martin Hoffman's theory and in the light of recent findings in the field of Psychophysiology.

Is Sadness Only One Emotion? Psychological and Physiological Responses to Sadness Induced by Two Different Situations: "Loss of Someone" and "Failure to Achieve a Goal"

We investigated whether sadness elicited by two different situations—loss of someone (loss) and failure to achieve a goal (failure)—had different physiological responses. Seventy-four participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (loss, failure, and neutral). Physiological responses were recorded during an imagery task that was designed to evoke sadness. The results of characteristics in the subjective ratings indicated that loss-evoked sadness was only associated with expressive words relating to tears. For the results of physiological measures, skin conductance levels (SCLs) increased during the imagery task across all conditions and differed between conditions during the post-task. For the loss condition, restoration to baseline level took longer, while in the failure the SCL decreased sharply back to baseline. Furthermore, tear ratings correlated with blood pressures in the loss condition, while sadness intensity correlated with blood pressures in the failure condition. These results suggest that sadness includes at least two subtypes that produce different responses in subjective ratings and physiological measures.

No strings attached: physiological monitoring of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with thermal imaging

Methodological challenges make physiological affective observations very restrictive as in many cases they take place in a laboratory setting rather than the animals' natural habitat. In the current study using Infrared Thermal Imaging we examine the physiological thermal imprints of five macaques. The monkeys were exposed in three different experimental scenarios. Playing with a toy, food teasing as well as feeding. It was observed that during teasing the temperature of the region surrounding the eyes was higher than play as a result of rapid saccades directed at the food. Compared to play and teasing, a lower temperature accompanied feeding on the upper lip, nose and orbital region suggesting elevated levels of distress. These findings prove that thermal imaging is a reliable method of physiological monitoring the subject at a distance while preserving a semi-experimental setting.

Anger responses to psychosocial stress predict heart rate and cortisol stress responses in men but not women

While previous research has suggested that anger and fear responses to stress are linked to distinct sympathetic nervous system (SNS) stress responses, little is known about how these emotions predict hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. Further, earlier research primarily relied on retrospective self-report of emotion. The current study aimed at addressing both issues in male and female individuals by assessing the role of anger and fear in predicting heart rate and cortisol stress responses using both self-report and facial coding analysis to assess emotion responses. We exposed 32 healthy students (18 female; 19.6±1.7 yr) to an acute psychosocial stress paradigm (TSST) and measured heart rate and salivary cortisol levels throughout the protocol. Anger and fear before and after stress exposure was assessed by self-report, and video recordings of the TSST were assessed by a certified facial coder to determine emotion expression (FACS). Self-reported emotions and emotion expressions did not correlate (all p>.23). Increases in self-reported fear predicted blunted cortisol responses in men (β=0.41, p=.04). Also for men, longer durations of anger expression predicted exaggerated cortisol responses (β=0.67 p=.004), and more anger incidences predicted exaggerated cortisol and heart rate responses (β=0.51, p=.033; β=0.46, p=.066, resp.). Anger and fear did not predict SNS or HPA activity for females (all p>.23). The current differential self-report and facial coding findings support the use of multiple modes of emotion assessment. Particularly, FACS but not self-report revealed a robust anger-stress association that could have important downstream health effects for men. For women, future research may clarify the role of other emotions, such as self-conscious expressions of shame, for physiological stress responses. A better understanding of the emotion-stress link may contribute to behavioral interventions targeting health-promoting ways of responding emotionally to stress.

See red? Turn pale? Unveiling Emotions through Cardiovascular and Hemodynamic Changes

Cardiodynamic and hemodynamic reactions to emotion-eliciting film sequences were investigated. Thirty-two healthy subjects (12 women, 20 men) were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the first group, anger was induced using selected scenes of the film “Ragtime.” In the second group, scenes of the film “The Shining” were chosen to elicit fear. A documentary film was used as a baseline stimulus in both groups. EKG, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were continuously monitored. The two emotional conditions elicited significant differential changes in subjective ratings and cardiovascular indices. Fear was associated with decreased cardiac output, increased total peripheral resistance, and a reduction in stroke volume and myocardial contractility. Anger was associated with an increase of cardiac output and small changes in total peripheral resistance. These results support the hypothesis that discrete emotions such as fear and anger elicit differential patterns of physiological responses.

The sensory channel of presentation alters subjective ratings and autonomic responses toward disgusting stimuli-Blood pressure, heart rate and skin conductance in response to visual, auditory, haptic and olfactory presented disgusting stimuli

Disgust causes specific reaction patterns, observable in mimic responses and body reactions. Most research on disgust deals with visual stimuli. However, pictures may cause another disgust experience than sounds, odors, or tactile stimuli. Therefore, disgust experience evoked by four different sensory channels was compared. A total of 119 participants received 3 different disgusting and one control stimulus, each presented through the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory channel. Ratings of evoked disgust as well as responses of the autonomic nervous system (heart rate, skin conductance level, systolic blood pressure) were recorded and the effect of stimulus labeling and of repeated presentation was analyzed. Ratings suggested that disgust could be evoked through all senses; they were highest for visual stimuli. However, autonomic reaction toward disgusting stimuli differed according to the channel of presentation. In contrast to the other, olfactory disgust stimuli provoked a strong decrease of systolic blood pressure. Additionally, labeling enhanced disgust ratings and autonomic reaction for olfactory and tactile, but not for visual and auditory stimuli. Repeated presentation indicated that participant's disgust rating diminishes to all but olfactory disgust stimuli. Taken together we argue that the sensory channel through which a disgust reaction is evoked matters.

Affective signals of threat increase perceived proximity

Do stimuli appear to be closer when they are more threatening? We tested people's perceptions of distance to stimuli that they felt were threatening relative to perceptions of stimuli they felt were disgusting or neutral. Two studies demonstrated that stimuli that emitted affective signals of threat (e.g., an aggressive male student) were seen as physically closer than stimuli that emitted affective signals of disgust (e.g., a repulsive male student) or no affective signal. Even after controlling for the direct effects of physiological arousal, object familiarity, and intensity of the negative emotional reaction, we found that threatening stimuli appeared to be physically closer than did disgusting ones (Study 2). These findings highlight the links among biased perception, action regulation, and successful navigation of the environment.

Depression, strokes and dementia: new biological insights into an unfortunate pathway

The literature emphasizes the risk of depression after a stroke. Less well known is the fact that depression may be as big a risk factor for strokes as hypertension, particularly in the older age group. This article reviews the risk for stroke and cognitive impairment consequent to depression, and describes the cardiovascular and immunological mechanisms that would appear to link depression to its cerebrovascular consequences. As well, the article refers to the brain imaging signatures that may allow prediction of impending brain injury. Finally, some questions that might be explored by future research are suggested, and some practical means to identify and help those at risk for the development of depression-associated vascular disease of the brain are suggested.

Self-reports of interoceptive responses during stress and drug cue-related experiences in cocaine- and alcohol-dependent individuals

Cocaine dependence is associated with neuroadaptations in stress and reward pathways that could alter stress and drug-related experiences and associated interoceptive sensations and result in enhanced craving states. Subjective interoceptive emotional and physiological responses experienced in stressful and drug cue situations were examined in abstinent cocaine-dependent individuals. Fifty-six treatment engaged cocaine-dependent patients with comorbid alcohol abuse or dependence were interviewed to identify personal stressful, drug cue, and neutral situations using a scene construction questionnaire (SCQ) that includes an emotional and physiological response checklist. Using this checklist, subjects identified emotional and bodily sensations that they recently experienced in the stress- and drug-related scenarios. Kappa coefficients indicated fair to moderate but significant degree of concordance in heart (p < .01), perspiration (p < .05), stomach (p < .05), and blood flow (p < .01) sensations for both stress and drug cue scenarios, while the McNemar change test indicated differential endorsement of interoceptive responses in stress and drug cue situations for breathing (p < .05), stomach (p < .05), tension (p < .05), and chest (p < .05) sensations, and for sad (p < .01), anger (p < .01), and excitement (p < .01) responses. Increased heartbeat and tension, tears, and anger urges were most commonly endorsed in the stress scenarios (between 50% and 79%), whereas butterflies in stomach, increased heartbeat and tension, jittery, restless, and warm excitement (53%-73%) were the most frequently endorsed sensations in the drug cue-related experiences. These self-reported sensations comprise both general arousal and specific interoceptive responses pertaining to stress or drug cue-related experiences in cocaine dependence, with potential value in guiding treatments targeting craving reduction.

Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: a review

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity is viewed as a major component of the emotion response in many recent theories of emotion. Positions on the degree of specificity of ANS activation in emotion, however, greatly diverge, ranging from undifferentiated arousal, over acknowledgment of strong response idiosyncrasies, to highly specific predictions of autonomic response patterns for certain emotions. A review of 134 publications that report experimental investigations of emotional effects on peripheral physiological responding in healthy individuals suggests considerable ANS response specificity in emotion when considering subtypes of distinct emotions. The importance of sound terminology of investigated affective states as well as of choice of physiological measures in assessing ANS reactivity is discussed.

Disgust, fear, and the anxiety disorders: a critical review

Anxiety disorders have traditionally been conceptualized as reflecting the emotions of fear and anxiety. A developing program of research demonstrates a relation between disgust and three specific anxiety disorders: blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, spider phobia, and contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This review serves three purposes. First, the authors review the response patterns predicted to be observed if the emotional response in these disorders involved disgust versus fear. The review suggests specific response patterns that characterize disgust and fear in the domains of heart rate, facial expression, neural activity, and cognitive processes. Second, the authors review extant research employing measures of these domains in spider phobia, BII phobia, and contamination-related OCD. The evidence suggests that both fear and disgust characterize each of these disorders, but the magnitude at which the emotions characterize the disorders may depend on the response domain measured. For example, disgust may be more involved in spider phobia in appraisals and facial expression, but less involved in neural correlates or heart rate domains. Third, the authors suggest guidelines for future research, including concurrent use of specific measures as well as examining whether the different emotions in different response domains respond to similar interventions (e.g., exposure).

Pain catastrophizing, physiological indexes, and chronic pain severity: tests of mediation and moderation models

Catastrophizing about pain is related to elevated pain severity and poor adjustment among chronic pain patients, but few physiological mechanisms by which pain catastrophizing maintains and exacerbates pain have been explored. We hypothesized that resting levels of lower paraspinal muscle tension and/or lower paraspinal and cardiovascular reactivity to emotional arousal may: (a) mediate links between pain catastrophizing and chronic pain intensity; (b) moderate these links such that only patients described by certain combinations of pain catastrophizing and physiological indexes would report pronounced chronic pain. Chronic low back pain patients (N = 97) participated in anger recall and sadness recall interviews while lower paraspinal and trapezius EMG and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were recorded. Mediation models were not supported. However, pain catastrophizing significantly interacted with resting lower paraspinal muscle tension to predict pain severity such that high catastrophizers with high resting lower paraspinal tension reported the greatest pain. Pain catastrophizing also interacted with SBP, DBP and HR reactivity to affect pain such that high catastrophizers who showed low cardiovascular reactivity to the interviews reported the greatest pain. Results support a multi-variable profile approach to identifying pain catastrophizers at greatest risk for pain severity by virtue of resting muscle tension and cardiovascular stress function.

Anger and fear: Separable effects of emotion and motivational direction on somatovisceral responses

We studied whether emotion (anger vs. fear) and motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) have specific, separable, and independent somatovisceral response patterns. Imagination scripts about soccer game episodes with crossed Emotion x Motivational Direction content resulting in four experimental groups were presented to a total of N = 118 active soccer players. Self-reports reflected the emotion but not the motivational direction induction. Univariate and multivariate analyses of 24 somatovisceral variables and 2 a priori defined summary variables showed that anger and fear had specific response profiles with effect sizes correlating r = 0.53 with the respective effect sizes from a previous study. Approach and withdrawal profiles varied only in intensity. Emotion and motivational direction did not interact and had independent somatovisceral effects. Results suggest that anger and fear have separate underlying neurobiological organizations each capable of bi-directional motivational tuning of efferent pathways. Results support the Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization.

Real-time Physiological Emotion Detection Mechanisms: Effects of Exercise and Affect Intensity

The development of systems capable of recognizing and categorising emotions is of interest to researchers in various scientific areas including artificial intelligence. The traditional notion that emotions and rationality are two separate realms has gradually been challenged. The work of neurologists has shown the strong relationship between emotional episodes and the way humans think and act. Furthermore, emotions not only regulate human decisions but could also contribute to a more satisfactory response to the environment, i.e., faster and more precise actions. In this paper an analysis of physiological signals employed in real-time emotion detection is presented in the context of Intelligent Inhabited Environments (IIE). Two studies were performed to investigate whether physical exertion has a significant effect on bodily signals stemming from emotional episodes with subjects having various degrees of affect intensity: 1) a statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon Test, and 2) a cluster analysis using the Davies-Bouldin Index. Preliminary results demonstrated that the heart rate and skin resistance consistently showed similar changes regardless of the physical stimuli while blood volume pressure did not show a significant change. It was also found that neither physical stress nor affect intensity played a role in the separation of neutral and non-neutral emotional states.

Experiencing positive affect and negative affect during stress: relationships to cardiac reactivity and to facial expressions

We examined the relationship between experienced positive/negative affect and cardiac reactivity and facial muscle movements during laboratory tasks with different demands. Heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period, and facial electromyography were measured during startle, mental arithmetic, reaction time task, and speech task. The results revealed that individuals experiencing high levels of positive affect exhibited more pronounced parasympathetic, heart rate, and orbicularis oculi reactivity than others. Individuals who experienced high levels of negative affects during the tasks showed higher corrugator supercilii responses. Men and women showed slightly different response patterns. To conclude, cardiac reactivity may be associated with positive involvement and enthusiasm in some situations and all reactivity should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological.

Heart rate response after emotional picture presentation is modulated by interoceptive awareness

The perception of visceral signals plays a crucial role in many theories of emotions. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive awareness, emotional experience and heart rate responses in an emotional stimulation paradigm. Based on their performance in a heartbeat perception task 38 participants (16 males, 22 females) were classified as subjects with either high (n=19; 8 males) or low interoceptive awareness (n=19; 8 males). 120 pictures (40 pleasant, 40 unpleasant, 40 neutral slides) from the International Affective Picture System served as emotional stimuli. Heart rate changes were recorded during baseline and during slide presentation. After each slide, the subjects had to rate emotional valence and arousal on a 9-point self-report scale. Statistical analyses revealed significantly stronger heart rate responses to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in subjects with high interoceptive awareness. Furthermore, subjects with high interoceptive awareness rated pleasant and unpleasant slides as significantly more arousing; no differences were found in the emotional valence ratings. Heartbeat perception scores correlated significantly positive with both the mean arousal rating and with the mean heart rate changes. Our results demonstrate a strong relationship between the perception of cardiac signals and the peripheral processing of emotional stimuli.

Cardiovascular and respiratory responses during musical mood induction

Music is used to induce moods in experimental settings as well as for therapeutic purposes. Prior studies suggest that subjects listening to certain types of music experience strong moods and show physiological responses associated with the induced emotions. We hypothesized that cardiovascular and respiratory patterns could discriminate moods induced via music. 18 healthy subjects listened to 12 music clips, four each to induce happiness, sadness, and fear, while cardiovascular and respiratory responses were recorded using an electrocardiogram and chest strain-gauge belt. After each clip subjects completed a questionnaire. Subjects consistently reported experiencing the targeted mood, suggesting successful mood induction. Cardiovascular activity was measured by calculating time domain measures and heart rate changes during each clip. Respiratory activity was measured by total, inspiration, and expiration lengths as well as changes in mean respiration rate during each clip. Evaluation of individuals' patterns and mixed-model analyses were performed. Contrary to expectations, the time domain measures of subjects' cardiovascular responses did not vary significantly between the induced moods, although a heart rate deceleration was found during the sadness inductions and acceleration during the fear inductions. The time domain respiratory measures varied with clip type: the mean breath length was longest for the sad induction, intermediate during fear, and shortest during the happiness induction. However, analysis using normalized least mean squares adaptive filters to measure time correlation indicated that much of this difference may be attributable to entrainment of respiration to characteristics of the music which varied between the stimuli. Our findings point to the difficulty in detecting psychophysiological correlates of mood induction, and further suggest that part of this difficulty may arise from failure to differentiate it from tempo-related contributions when music is used as the inducer.

Does positive affect influence health?

This review highlights consistent patterns in the literature associating positive affect (PA) and physical health. However, it also raises serious conceptual and methodological reservations. Evidence suggests an association of trait PA and lower morbidity and of state and trait PA and decreased symptoms and pain. Trait PA is also associated with increased longevity among older community-dwelling individuals. The literature on PA and surviving serious illness is inconsistent. Experimentally inducing intense bouts of activated state PA triggers short-term rises in physiological arousal and associated (potentially harmful) effects on immune, cardiovascular, and pulmonary function. However, arousing effects of state PA are not generally found in naturalistic ambulatory studies in which bouts of PA are typically less intense and often associated with health protective responses. A theoretical framework to guide further study is proposed.

A Treatment Most Foul: Handling Disgust in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

The nature of disgust as it relates to psychopathology is described. Evaluative conditioning, an important theory for understanding the acquisition and maintenance of disgust reactions, is discussed, and linked with the general theory of disgust by Rozin and Fallon (1987). The empirical literature on the role of disgust in psychopathology, primarily phobias and general problems of fearful avoidance, is covered, as well as cognitive biases and distortions. Finally, a hierarchy of psychopathology influenced by disgust is presented.

Psychophysiological Correlates of Disgust and Disgust Sensitivity

Abstract. The main goal of this study was to estimate the correlation between various psychophysiological variables and self-reported disgust during a picture perception paradigm. We further studied disgust sensitivity (DS) as a possible moderator variable for this relationship. Forty-seven subjects (23 females) were presented with a total of 36 pictures with different disgust intensities. Each picture was shown for 8s during which different physiological parameters were registered: heart rate (HR), skin conductance response (SCR), and electromyographic activity (EMG) of the musculus levator labii. Affective ratings and viewing times were assessed after the physiological registrations. The data were analyzed using hierarchical linear models. The degree of the disgust experience reported by the subjects showed a significantly negative correlation with HR and a significantly positive correlation with SCR. Disgust-inducing pictures resulted in higher EMG responses in comparison to neutral pictures, but there was no significant correlation between self-reported disgust and EMG activity on an individual level. Elevated DS, measured by the questionnaire by Haidt, McCauley, and Rozin, (1994) , led to more intense subjective responses toward disgust-inducing pictures, but this was not true for the behavioral and physiological responses.