Physiological correlates of emotional state

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between emotion and physiological measures of autonomic system response. Features of electrodermal, cardiac, respiratory, movement, and oculomotor response were measured from a population of normal subjects while they were presented standard acoustic and visual stimuli designed to evoke specific emotions. The subjects' assessments of their emotional response to the stimuli (self-report) were also recorded. We present results of a preliminary analysis of the statistical relationship between the stimulus category, the physiological features and self-report. We found significant differences across stimulus categories, as well as across self-reported emotions, suggesting that a combination of features could be used to classify the emotional content of a discrete stimulus. We also examine the dependence of physiological signals on the mode of stimulus presentations. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.