Heart Rate Variability and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Assessment of Affective States by Bivariate Autoregressive Spectral Analysis.

The study of emotions elicited by human-computer interactions is a promising field that could lead to the identification of specific patterns of affective states. We present a heart rate variability (HRV) assessment of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) response and respiratory sinus arrhythmia during PC-mediated stimuli by means of standard and multivariate autoregressive spectral methods. 35 healthy volunteers were exposed to computer-mediated tasks during data collection. The stimuli were designed to elicit: relaxation (R), engagement (E) and stress (S); half of the subjects were exposed to E before S (RES) while the other to S before E (RSE). HRV measures clearly separate the ANS response among R, S and E. Less significant differences are found between E and S in RSE, suggesting that S stimuli may cause a lasting response affecting the E period. Results from the bivariate analysis indicate a disruption of the cardio-respiratory coupling during non-relax conditions.

Quantitative evaluation of distant student psychophysical responses during the e-learning processes.

Using 4 biometric sensors, including GSR (Galvanic Skin Response), BVP (Blood Volume Pulse), EKG (Electro Cardio Grapy) and EEG (Electro Encephalon Grapy), this paper proposes to attempt to correlate the presentation of relaxing, engaging or stressful content to the subjective measures provided by participants in experiments. Once the participant interacts with content from one of the 3 conditions, they may or may not be selectively relaxed, engaged or stressed, and their scores on a psychological self-questionnaire (STAI: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) should show that. From correlating the subjective ratings with the experimental conditions, is proposed to allow to develop algorithms that can be used to classify learners' affective state during synchronous or asynchronous coursework. It is proposed that the algorithm could be used synchronously for the teacher to get student feedback in real time.

Effects of hypnotic analgesia and hypnotizability on experimental ischemic pain.

Mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia are still poorly understood and conflicting data are reported regarding the underlying neurochemical correlates. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of hypnotically induced analgesia and hypnotizability on experimental ischemic pain, taking into account pain and distress tolerance as well as the neurochemical correlates. 11 high hypnotizable Ss and 10 low hypnotizable Ss, as determined by scores on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (Weitzenhoffer & E. R. Hilgard, 1962), were administered an ischemic pain test in both waking and hypnotic conditions. The following variables were measured: (a) pain and distress tolerance, (b) anxiety levels, and (c) plasma concentrations of beta-endorphin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Results confirmed significant increases of pain and distress tolerance during hypnosis as compared to the waking state, with positive correlations between pain and distress relief and hypnotizability. Moreover, a hypnotically induced dissociation between the sensory-discriminative and the affective-motivational dimensions of pain experience was found, but only in high hypnotizable Ss. Hypnotic analgesia was unrelated to anxiety reduction and was not mediated either by endorphins or by ACTH.