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On the feasibility of combining ECG & EEG analysis to identify emotions evoked by IAPS visual stimuli

Christos A. Frantzidis1*, Maria Farini1, Anastasia Semertzidou1, Foteini Tsampardouka1, Ana B. Vivas2, Costas Pappas1 and Panagiotis D. Bamidis1
  • 1 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Medical Informatics Laboratory, School of Medicine, Greece
  • 2 City Liberal Studies (Affiliated Institution of the University of Sheffield), Psychology Department, Greece

Although neurophysiological emotional identification has so far employed EEG (ERP) [1] and recently MEG) [2] recordings screening of autonomic functions by means of ECG measurements will provide valuable information [3]. The aim of this study was to combine heart rate alterations with EEG features in order to identify emotional states employing stimuli selected from the IAPS [4]. The pictures were divided according to their distribution in emotional categories, characterized by the valence and arousal. The procedure involved the successive viewing of the stimuli belonging to the same category (block phase) and the picture presentation in random order [5]. Healthy adults (14 males and 14 females) participated. The proposed methodology included the beat rate calculation during the experimental procedure using the ECG activity in relaxed state as a reference. The statistical analysis of the block phase revealed significant differences in heart rate (deceleration) for valence by gender and arousal by gender interactions. In the randomized phase significant differences appeared for the arousal effect. This approach implies that emotional processing modulates the heart activity, while gender differences also occur. The importance of these findings in view of combining them with results from ERP analysis (peak and latency) is discussed. The ERPs in blocks revealed that unpleasant and arousing pictures had the greatest influence in early components (N100). Stimulus arousal also influences the middle components. The higher P200 latency was found in men for low arousing pleasant pictures, while high arousing pictures elicit greater N200 amplitude and more decreased latency. During the random phase, ERP analysis showed that arousal and gender influenced the middle components. Our results derived from the combination of ECG and EEG features may lead to the conclusion of facilitated processing of fearful stimuli as well as to a correlation between increased arousal and attention.

References

1. H. T. Schupp, “Affective picture processing: The late positive potential is modulated by motivational relevance,” Psychophysiology, vol. 37, issue 2, pp. 257-261, March 2003.

2. G. Northoff, et al., “Functional Dissociation between Medial and Lateral Prefrontal Cortical Spatiotemporal Activation in Negative and Positive Emotions: A Combined fMRI / MEG Study,” Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 10, No. 1, 93-107, January 2000.

3. M. A. Gray, L. Minati, N. A. Harrison, P. J. Gianaros, V. Napadow and H D. Critchley, “Physiological recordings: Basic concepts and implementation during functional magnetic resonance imaging,” NeuroImage, Vol. 47, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 1105-1115

4. P. J. Lang, M.M. Bradley and B. N. Cuthbert, “International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Technical Manual and Affective Ratings,” NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, 1997.

5. P. D. Bamidis, A. Luneski, A. Vivas, C. Papadelis, N. Maglaveras and C. Pappas , “Multi-channel physiological sensing of human emotion: insights into Emotion-Aware Computing using Affective Protocols, Avatars and Emotion ,” in Proc. of Medinfo 2007.Brisbane, Australia, 2007, pp.106 8–1072.

Conference: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Instrumentation and Multi-modal Integrations: MEG, Low-field MRI,EEG, fMRI,TMS,NIRS

Citation: Frantzidis CA, Farini M, Semertzidou A, Tsampardouka F, Vivas AB, Pappas C and Bamidis PD (2010). On the feasibility of combining ECG & EEG analysis to identify emotions evoked by IAPS visual stimuli. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00020

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Received: 19 Mar 2010; Published Online: 19 Mar 2010.

* Correspondence: Christos A Frantzidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Medical Informatics Laboratory, School of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece, pdbamidis@gmail.com