Study on the Psychological States of Olfactory Stimuli Using Electroencephalography and Heart Rate Variability.

In the modern information society, people are constantly exposed to stress due to complex work environments and various interpersonal relationships. Aromatherapy is attracting attention as one of the methods for relieving stress using aroma. A method to quantitatively evaluate such an effect is necessary to clarify the effect of aroma on the human psychological state. In this study, we propose a method of using two biological indexes, electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV), to evaluate human psychological states during the inhalation of aroma. The purpose is to investigate the relationship between biological indexes and the psychological effect of aromas. First, we conducted an aroma presentation experiment using seven different olfactory stimuli while collecting data from EEG and pulse sensors. Next, we extracted the EEG and HRV indexes from the experimental data and analyzed them with respect to the olfactory stimuli. Our study found that olfactory stimuli have a strong effect on psychological states during aroma stimuli and that the human response to olfactory stimuli is immediate but gradually adapts to a more neutral state. The EEG and HRV indexes showed significant differences between aromas and unpleasant odors especially for male participants in their 20-30s, while the delta wave and RMSSD indexes showed potential for generalizing the method to evaluate psychological states influenced by olfactory stimuli across genders and generations. The results suggest the possibility of using EEG and HRV indexes to evaluate psychological states toward olfactory stimuli such as aroma. In addition, we visualized the psychological states affected by the olfactory stimuli on an emotion map, suggesting an appropriate range of EEG frequency bands for evaluating psychological states applied to the olfactory stimuli. The novelty of this research lies in our proposed method to provide a more detailed picture of the psychological responses to olfactory stimuli using the integration of biological indexes and emotion map, which contributes to the areas such as marketing and product design by providing insights into the emotional responses of consumers to different olfactory products.

Human Error Prediction Using Heart Rate Variability and Electroencephalography.

As human's simple tasks are being increasingly replaced by autonomous systems and robots, it is likely that the responsibility of handling more complex tasks will be more often placed on human workers. Thus, situations in which workplace tasks change before human workers become proficient at those tasks will arise more frequently due to rapid changes in business trends. Based on this background, the importance of preventing human error will become increasingly crucial. Existing studies on human error reveal how task errors are related to heart rate variability (HRV) indexes and electroencephalograph (EEG) indexes. However, in terms of preventing human error, analysis on their relationship with conditions before human error occurs (i.e., the human pre-error state) is still insufficient. This study aims at identifying biological indexes potentially useful for the detection of high-risk psychological states. As a result of correlation analysis between the number of errors in a Stroop task and the multiple HRV and EEG indexes obtained before and during the task, significant correlations were obtained with respect to several biological indexes. Specifically, we confirmed that conditions before the task are important for predicting the human error risk in high-cognitive-load tasks while conditions both before and during tasks are important in low-cognitive-load tasks.

The Implementation and Evaluation of Individual Preference in Robot Facial Expression Based on Emotion Estimation Using Biological Signals.

Recently, robot services have been widely applied in many fields. To provide optimum service, it is essential to maintain good acceptance of the robot for more effective interaction with users. Previously, we attempted to implement facial expressions by synchronizing an estimated human emotion on the face of a robot. The results revealed that the robot could present different perceptions according to individual preferences. In this study, we considered individual differences to improve the acceptance of the robot by changing the robot's expression according to the emotion of its interacting partner. The emotion was estimated using biological signals, and the robot changed its expression according to three conditions: synchronized with the estimated emotion, inversely synchronized, and a funny expression. During the experiment, the participants provided feedback regarding the robot's expression by choosing whether they "like" or "dislike" the expression. We investigated individual differences in the acceptance of the robot expression using the Semantic Differential scale method. In addition, logistic regression was used to create a classification model by considering individual differences based on the biological data and feedback from each participant. We found that the robot expression based on inverse synchronization when the participants felt a negative emotion could result in impression differences among individuals. Then, the robot's expression was determined based on the classification model, and the Semantic Differential scale on the impression of the robot was compared with the three conditions. Overall, we found that the participants were most accepting when the robot expression was calculated using the proposed personalized method.

Constructing an Emotion Estimation Model Based on EEG/HRV Indexes Using Feature Extraction and Feature Selection Algorithms.

In human emotion estimation using an electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV), there are two main issues as far as we know. The first is that measurement devices for physiological signals are expensive and not easy to wear. The second is that unnecessary physiological indexes have not been removed, which is likely to decrease the accuracy of machine learning models. In this study, we used single-channel EEG sensor and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, which are inexpensive and easy to wear. We collected data from 25 participants (18 males and 7 females) and used a deep learning algorithm to construct an emotion classification model based on Arousal-Valence space using several feature combinations obtained from physiological indexes selected based on our criteria including our proposed feature selection methods. We then performed accuracy verification, applying a stratified 10-fold cross-validation method to the constructed models. The results showed that model accuracies are as high as 90% to 99% by applying the features selection methods we proposed, which suggests that a small number of physiological indexes, even from inexpensive sensors, can be used to construct an accurate emotion classification model if an appropriate feature selection method is applied. Our research results contribute to the improvement of an emotion classification model with a higher accuracy, less cost, and that is less time consuming, which has the potential to be further applied to various areas of applications.

Discriminative power of an adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 applied to Brazilian older adults.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the discriminative power of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. METHODS: A cross sectional study involving one hundred participants aged ≥60 years. The original and adapted versions of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 and the Mini Nutritional Assessment were used. Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 adaptation consisted of a lower age cutoff (60 years or older) for addition of one extra point to the final score. RESULTS: Screening using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 revealed higher nutritional risk among patients aged ≥70 years (p=0.009), whereas screening using the adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 revealed similar nutritional risk in both age groups (60-69 years and ≥70 years; p=0.117). Frequency of nutritional risk was highest when the Mini Nutritional Assessment was administered (52.7%), followed by the adapted and original versions of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (35.5% and 29.1%, respectively). CONCLUSION: The adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 was more effective than the original version. However, further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Discriminative power of an adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 applied to Brazilian older adults / Poder diagnóstico discriminativo da versão adaptada do Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 administrada em idosos brasileiros

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the discriminative power of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. Methods: A cross sectional study involving one hundred participants aged ≥60 years. The original and adapted versions of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 and the Mini Nutritional Assessment were used. Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 adaptation consisted of a lower age cutoff (60 years or older) for addition of one extra point to the final score. Results: Screening using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 revealed higher nutritional risk among patients aged ≥70 years (p=0.009), whereas screening using the adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 revealed similar nutritional risk in both age groups (60-69 years and ≥70 years; p=0.117). Frequency of nutritional risk was highest when the Mini Nutritional Assessment was administered (52.7%), followed by the adapted and original versions of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (35.5% and 29.1%, respectively). Conclusion: The adapted version of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 was more effective than the original version. However, further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

RESUMO Objetivo: Avaliar o poder de discriminação diagnóstica da ferramenta Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. Métodos: Estudo transversal com cem participantes com idade ≥60 anos. Foram aplicados o Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 original, o Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 adaptado e o Mini Nutritional Assessment. A adaptação do Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 consistiu em diminuir o critério de idade, incluindo pontuação adicional para 60 anos de idade ou mais. Resultados: Maior risco nutricional ocorreu nos ≥70 anos quando aplicado o Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 original (p=0,009), enquanto o Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 adaptado apresentou risco nutricional semelhante em ambos os grupos (60-69 anos e ≥70 anos; p=0,117). A frequência de risco nutricional foi maior no Mini Nutritional Assessment (52,7%), seguido do Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 adaptado (35,5%) e do Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 original (29,1%). Conclusão: A adaptação do Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 mostrou-se descritivamente mais eficaz do que a original, porém mais estudos devem ser realizados para confirmar os achados.