Kosonogov et al - Data

Functional
infrared thermal imaging (fITI) is considered an upcoming method to measure
emotional autonomic responses through facial cutaneous thermal variations.
However, the facial thermal response to emotion still needs to be investigated
in the framework of the dimensional approach to emotions. Hence, the main aim
of this study was to assess how the facial thermal variations index the
emotional arousal and valence dimensions of visual stimuli. Twenty-four
participants were presented with three groups of standardized emotional
pictures (unpleasant, neutral and pleasant) from the International Affective
Picture System. Facial temperature was recorded at the nose tip, an important
region of interest for facial thermal variations, and compared to electrodermal
responses, a robust index of emotional arousal. Both types of responses were
also compared to subjective ratings of pictures.

An
emotional arousal effect was found on the amplitude and the latency of thermal
responses and on the amplitude and the frequency of electrodermal responses.
The participants showed greater thermal and dermal responses to emotional than
to neutral pictures with no difference between pleasant and unpleasant ones.
The thermal responses correlated and the dermal ones tended to correlate with
the subjective ratings. Finally, in the emotional conditions compared to the
neutral one, the frequency of simultaneous thermal and dermal responses
increased while the isolated responses, thermal or dermal, decreased.

Overall,
this study brings convergent arguments to consider fITI as a promising method
reflecting the arousal dimension of emotional stimulation and, consequently, as
a credible alternative to the classical recording of electrodermal activity.
The present research provides an original unveiler of autonomic implication in
emotional processes and opens new perspectives to measure them in touch-less
conditions.