Respiratory responses during affective picture viewing

Previous research has demonstrated covariation of physiological responding with judgments of valence and arousal. However, until now links between these affective dimensions and respiratory measures have not been extensively investigated. In this study, eight picture series of different affective valence and arousal level were shown to 30 subjects, while respiration, skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR) and affective judgments were measured. With increasing pleasantness, inspiratory time lengthened, mean inspiratory flow decreased and thoracic breathing increased. With increasing arousal, inspiratory time and total breath duration shortened and mean inspiratory flow, minute ventilation, thoracic breathing and electrodermal activity increased. These findings confirm the importance of arousal in respiratory responding, but also indicate a modulatory role of affective valence. We propose that the arousal effects reflect energy mobilization in preparation to act, and that the valence effects might be a manifestation of an attention bias toward negative stimuli.

[1]  I. Nyklíček,et al.  Cardiorespiratory differentiation of musically-induced emotions. , 1997 .

[2]  K. Vohs,et al.  Case Western Reserve University , 1990 .

[3]  A. Hamm,et al.  Emotionsinduktion durch visuelle Reize: Validierung einer Stimulationsmethode auf drei Reaktionsebenen , 1993 .

[4]  James R. Kenyon,et al.  Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Repeated Measurements , 2003, Technometrics.

[5]  M. Bradley,et al.  Picture media and emotion: effects of a sustained affective context. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[6]  M. Bradley,et al.  Measuring emotion: the Self-Assessment Manikin and the Semantic Differential. , 1994, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.

[7]  A. J. Fridlund.  Sociality of Solitary Smiling: Potentiation by an Implicit Audience , 1991 .

[8]  Patrick Gomez,et al.  Respiratory responses associated with affective processing of film stimuli , 2005, Biological Psychology.

[9]  Edward B. Royzman,et al.  Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion , 2001 .

[10]  Wolfram Boucsein,et al.  Progress in Electrodermal Research , 1993, NATO ASI Series.

[11]  P. Lang,et al.  International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings (Tech. Rep. No. A-4) , 1999 .

[12]  Alfons O. Hamm,et al.  Motivational organization of emotions: Autonomic changes, cortical responses, and reflex modulation. , 2003 .

[13]  R. Davidson.  Affective neuroscience and psychophysiology: toward a synthesis. , 2003, Psychophysiology.

[14]  Peter J. Lang,et al.  Attention and Orienting : Sensory and Motivational Processes , 1997 .

[15]  Mark D. Underwood,et al.  Autonomic and somatomotor effects of amygdala central N. stimulation in awake rabbits , 1983, Physiology & Behavior.

[16]  H. Nakamura.  [Effects of musical emotionality upon GSR and respiration rate: the relationship between verbal reports and physiological responses]. , 1984, Shinrigaku kenkyu : The Japanese journal of psychology.

[17]  M. Bradley,et al.  Affective reactions to acoustic stimuli. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[18]  Katherine H. Gibney,et al.  The Physiological Correlates of Kundalini Yoga Meditation: A Study of a Yoga Master , 2001, Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback.

[19]  O. Van den Bergh,et al.  Hyperventilation beyond fight/flight: respiratory responses during emotional imagery. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[20]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Negative information weighs more heavily on the brain: The negativity bias in evaluative categorizations. , 1998 .

[21]  Francisco Esteves,et al.  Gateways to consciousness : Emotion, attention, and electrodermal activity , 1993 .

[22]  K. Lowenstein.  Meditation and Self-Regulatory Techniques , 2002 .

[23]  Scott Shannon,et al.  Handbook of complementary and alternative therapies in mental health , 2002 .

[24]  R. Harper,et al.  State-dependent alteration of respiratory cycle timing by stimulation of the central nucleus of the amygdala , 1984, Brain Research.

[25]  B. Krieger,et al.  Calibration of respiratory inductive plethysmograph during natural breathing. , 1989, Journal of applied physiology.

[26]  O. John,et al.  Automatic vigilance: the attention-grabbing power of negative social information. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[27]  K. Scherer,et al.  Handbook of affective sciences. , 2003 .

[28]  S. Svebak,et al.  The psychological significance of task-induced tonic changes in somatic and autonomic activity. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[29]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex. , 1990, Psychological review.

[30]  G. Peeters,et al.  Positive-Negative Asymmetry in Evaluations: The Distinction Between Affective and Informational Negativity Effects , 1990 .

[31]  Paul Grossman,et al.  Influence of drive and timing mechanisms on breathing pattern and ventilation during mental task performance , 1998, Biological Psychology.

[32]  Albert Mehrabian,et al.  A semantic space for nonverbal behavior. , 1970 .

[33]  C. Osgood,et al.  The Measurement of Meaning , 1958 .

[34]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior. , 1980 .

[35]  P. Lang,et al.  Affective judgment and psychophysiological response: Dimensional covariation in the evaluation of pictorial stimuli. , 1989 .

[36]  A. Angrilli,et al.  Visual evoked potentials, heart rate responses and memory to emotional pictorial stimuli. , 1997, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[37]  M. Bradley,et al.  Looking at pictures: affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[38]  M. Bradley,et al.  Motivated attention: Affect, activation, and action. , 1997 .

[39]  M. Bradley,et al.  Neuroanatomical correlates of pleasant and unpleasant emotion , 1997, Neuropsychologia.

[40]  N. Frijda,et al.  Emotions and respiratory patterns: review and critical analysis. , 1994, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[41]  Luis Carretié,et al.  Cerebral patterns of attentional habituation to emotional visual stimuli. , 2003, Psychophysiology.

[42]  Jeff T. Larsen,et al.  May I have your attention, please: Electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli , 2003, Neuropsychologia.

[43]  L Carretié,et al.  Emotion, attention, and the 'negativity bias', studied through event-related potentials. , 2001, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[44]  P. Gomez,et al.  Affective and physiological responses to environmental noises and music. , 2004, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[45]  F. Boiten.  The effects of emotional behaviour on components of the respiratory cycle , 1998, Biological Psychology.

[46]  Walter Krämer,et al.  Review of Modern applied statistics with S, 4th ed. by W.N. Venables and B.D. Ripley. Springer-Verlag 2002 , 2003 .

[47]  R. Simons,et al.  Emotion processing in three systems: the medium and the message. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[48]  The Effect of the Emotions upon Diaphragmatic Function: Observations in Five Patients , 1941 .

[49]  J. Russell.  A circumplex model of affect. , 1980 .