Is heart rate variability (HRV) an adequate tool for evaluating human emotions? – A focus on the use of the International Affective Picture System (IAPS)

Abstract Because human emotion varies greatly among individuals and is a qualitative factor, measuring it with any degree of accuracy is very difficult. Heart rate variability (HRV), which is used in evaluations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is used to evaluate human emotions. This study ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatry research 2017-05, Vol.251, p.192-196
Main Authors: Choi, Kwang-Ho, Kim, Junbeom, Kwon, O. Sang, Ji Kim, Min, Hee Ryu, Yeon, Park, Ji-Eun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Arousal - physiology
Correlation
Emotion
Emotions - physiology
Female
Happiness
Healthy Volunteers
Heart Rate - physiology
Humans
Male
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychiatry
R-R interval
Reproducibility of Results
Self-Assessment
Self-Assessment Manikin
Visual stimulation
Young Adult
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Summary:Abstract Because human emotion varies greatly among individuals and is a qualitative factor, measuring it with any degree of accuracy is very difficult. Heart rate variability (HRV), which is used in evaluations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is used to evaluate human emotions. This study examines the validity of HRV as a tool to evaluate emotions using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). For experimentation, five photos were selected for each of the categories of “happy,” “unhappy”, and “neutral” from among the images provided by the IAPS. The subjects were required to complete the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) after being shown each picture. We extracted the R-R interval (RRI) value of each photo from the PPG, as well as the valence, arousal, and dominance value of each photo from the SAM to analyze their correlation. As results, there was significant positive correlation with valence and significant negative correlation with dominance in the photo simulation associated with the “unhappy” emotion, only when the arousal value exceeded a critical value. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that it is possible to use an HRV-based evaluation only when a high level of emotion is induced by visual stimulation.
ISSN:0165-1781
1872-7123
DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.02.025