Electrophysiological and hemodynamic correlates of emotional states. A new protocol for emotional behavior evaluation

Objective: Emotional processes definition is a discussed topic in literature. Indeed, emotional states are considered fundamental components for individuals development, well-being and social interactions. Psychological and neuropsychological studies have investigated, in particularly, the different components of emotional states and the relation between cognitive processes and physiological responses related to different emotions. The aim of the present study was to investigate different patterns of emotional responses elicited by the construction of new paradigms for emotional elicitation. Participants and Methods: The protocol provided the administration of three different tasks on a sample of healthy participants. Specifically, two tasks required participants to observe different positive, negative and neutral emotional pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and stimuli representing human interactions of different hedonic valence and physiological arousal. The other task was created to elicit emotional responses related to participants autobiographical memories. During the administration of the tasks, cortical (EEG), hemodynamic (Functional Near - Infrared Spectroscopy, fNIRS) and autonomic (biofeedback) correlates of emotional responses were recorded. Results: The findings highlighted different cortical and autonomic responses, in agreement with the valence of emotional stimuli presented in the three tasks. Furthermore, clusters of biomarkers related to distinct elicited emotions were found through specific algorithms. Conclusions: Although the existence of different paradigms for emotional states elicitation, this study shows the potentials of a new protocol for emotional responses analysis and of specific algorithms employment for emotional biomarkers creation. Moreover, the use of a multimethod approach allows to investigate the electrophysiological and autonomic correlates of emotional states.