A study on the relationship between emotions and brain signals evoked by head-up display images

Objective: This study investigated the relationship between emotions and brain signals evoked by vehicle head-up display (HUD) images. Background: Prior studies showed that HUD images can evoke different emotions such as happy, sad, angry, disgusted, scared and neutral feelings. EEG signals have been used for a non-touch based user interface. Method: 20 Participants were exposed to 18 HUD images in the laboratory-based and driving simulator-based settings. The HUD images were different each other in terms of their content, amount of information, location, font, and color. 16-channel EEG signals were obtained during each HUD image exposure, and were later used to calculate 3 EEG indices such as EEG activity, concentration level and relaxation level. In addition, the participants reported their emotion they felt from each HUD image on semantic differential scales with two bipolar adjectives (range: 1-7). Results: The HUD images showed different effects on emotion, concentration, and EEG activity. Conclusion: Color appeared to be a key factor for determining the type of emotion evoked, whereas the amount of information appeared to determine the brain activation level in the central lobe. Especially, neural activities in the temporal lobe showed a positive association with concentration level. Application: Findings on association between emotions and EEG signals can be used for designing a new type of DVI (driver-vehicle interface)