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.