Spectral differences in resting-state EEG associated to individual Emotional Styles.

The ability to manage the emotions has been associated to the Emotional Styles (ES), a set of coherent ways to deal with life's experiences. Recently, the Emotional Style Questionnaire (ESQ) has been proposed as a self-report mea-sure to assess the individual ES. The present study investigates the spectral differences in the resting-state EEG due to the individual ES, in order to support the psychometric reliability of the ESQ with associated neurophysiological measurements. In the alpha and beta band, Social Intuition showed significant and large (d > 0.8) effect sizes on the parietal and parieto-occipital regions, as well as a significant and large effect size in the gamma band on the pre-frontal region. In the beta band, Attention showed a significant and large effect size on the parieto-occipital region.

It's a Question of Methods: Computational Factors Influencing the Frontal Asymmetry in Measuring the Emotional Valence.

The prefrontal asymmetry (FA) in the alpha band is a well-known physiological correlate of the emotional valence. Several methods for assessing the FA have been proposed in literature, but no studies have compared their effectiveness in a comprehensive way. In this study we first investigated whether the association between FA and valence depends on the computational methods and then, we identified the best one, namely the one giving the highest correlation with the self-reports. The investigated factors were the presence of a normalization factor, the computation in time or frequency domain and the cluster of electrodes used. All the analyses were implemented on the validated DEAP dataset. We found that the number and position of the electrodes do not influence the FA, in contrast with both the power computation method and the normalization. By using a spectrogram-based approach and by adding a normalization factor, a correlation of 0.36 between the FA and the self-reported valence was obtained.

Yellow (Lens) Better: Bioelectrical and Biometrical Measures to Assess Arousing and Focusing Effects.

Colours can induce several psychological effects, conditioning perceptions, cognitive/emotional states and human performances. In this exploratory study we investigated the effect of a yellow light exposure, obtained filtering the ambient light with coloured glasses, on the human's psychological functioning. In particular we wanted to assess if people are more able to focus when exposed to a yellow light. We recorded EEG, SC, HR and gaze-related data from 16 subjects (50% split in experimental and control group) during the execution of a reactivity test (the Hazard Perception Test, HPT). Compared with the control group, the experimental group showed increases in concentration, focus, visual attention and arousal, as measured by increases of first fixation duration and Beta over-Alpha ratio (BAR) as well as by decreases of distraction, workload, and number of gaze revisits.

Emotion assessment using Machine Learning and low-cost wearable devices.

The advancement in bioelectrical measurement technologies and the push towards a higher impact of the Brain Computer Interfaces and Affective Computing in the daily life have made non-invasive and low-priced devices available to the large population to record physiological states. The aim of this study is the assessment of the abilities of the MUSE headband, together with the Shimmer GSR+ device, to assess the emotional state of people during stimuli exposure. Twenty-four pictures from the IAPS database were showed to 54 subjects and were evaluated in their emotional values by means of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Using a Machine Learning approach, fifty-two scalar features were extracted from the signals and used to train 6 binary classifiers to predict the valence and arousal elicited by each stimulus. In all classifiers we obtained accuracies ranging from 53.6% to 69.9%, confirming that these devices are able to give information about the emotional state.

Neurocoaching: exploring the relationship between coach and coachee by means of bioelectrical signal similarities.

Coaching aims to unlock the human's potential, self-awareness and responsibility, improving the professional performances and the personal satisfaction. Its effectiveness is known to depend on the degree of bonding and mutual engagement of the coaching relationship. In this exploratory study we recorded synchronised EEG and SC data from both coach and coachee during 36 individual sessions, performed following 2 different coaching methods. Our principal aim was to investigate the temporal evolution of the bonding and the mutual engagement along the different steps of a session, by means of a "similarity" metric based on the DTW distance between signals (namely, S-TVM). We found significant differences between session phases for the EEG-related S-TVMs (BAR, BATR and AWI), with maximum values (defined as "tuning") all in the same phase, but differentiated between the two experiments. The results suggest a temporal concurrency of the engagement and emotional tunings, whose specific location seems to be a function of the coaching approach.

Looking through blue glasses: bioelectrical measures to assess the awakening after a calm situation.

Colors can elicit cognitive and emotional states. In particular, blue colour is associated to "refresh" and "restart" effects and is suggested to enhance a wake-up after a calm situation. In this exploratory study, these claims are investigated using Electroencephalographic (EEG), Skin Conductance (SC) and pupil diameter data. The results confirmed the "wake-up effect" for subjects wearing the lenses, as measured by Global Field Power (GFP) in Theta Band, Skin Conductance Response (SCR) and pupil diameter data.