Sex differences in emotional concordance.

Emotions involve response synchronization across experiential, physiological, and behavioral systems, referred to as concordance or coherence. Women are thought to be more emotionally aware and expressive than men and may therefore display stronger response concordance; however, research on this topic is scant. Using a random-order film-average design, we assessed concordance among experiential (arousal, valence), autonomic (electrodermal activity, heart rate, preejection period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia), respiratory (respiratory rate), and behavioral (corrugator and zygomatic electromyography) responses to 15 two-minute films varying in valence and arousal. We then calculated for each participant and pair of measures a within-subject correlation index using averages from the 15 films. Pronounced individual concordance of up to 0.9 was observed. Arousal-physiology and valence-behavior concordances were particularly pronounced. Women displayed higher concordance than men for almost all pairs of measures. Findings indicate stronger psychophysiological response coupling in women than men and provide novel insights into affective differences between the sexes

Predicting Pathology in Medical Decision Support Systems in Endoscopy of the Gastrointestinal Tract

Since medical endoscopy is a minimally invasive and relatively painless procedure, allowing to inspect the inner cavities of the human body, endoscopes play an important role in modern medicine. In medica

Detecting Moments of Stress from Measurements of Wearable Physiological Sensors

There is a rich repertoire of methods for stress detection using various physiological signals and algorithms. However, there is still a gap in research efforts moving from laboratory studies to real-world settings. A small number of research has verified when a physiological response is a reaction to an extrinsic stimulus of the participant’s environment in real-world settings. Typically, physiological signals are correlated with the spatial characteristics of the physical environment, supported by video records or interviews. The present research aims to bridge the gap between laboratory settings and real-world field studies by introducing a new algorithm that leverages the capabilities of wearable physiological sensors to detect moments of stress (MOS). We propose a rule-based algorithm based on galvanic skin response and skin temperature, combing empirical findings with expert knowledge to ensure transferability between laboratory settings and real-world field studies. To verify our algorithm, we carried out a laboratory experiment to create a “gold standard” of physiological responses to stressors. We validated the algorithm in real-world field studies using a mixed-method approach by spatially correlating the participant’s perceived stress, geo-located questionnaires, and the corresponding real-world situation from the video. Results show that the algorithm detects MOS with 84% accuracy, showing high correlations between measured (by wearable sensors), reported (by questionnaires and eDiary entries), and recorded (by video) stress events. The urban stressors that were identified in the real-world studies originate from traffic congestion, dangerous driving situations, and crowded areas such as tourist attractions. The presented research can enhance stress detection in real life and may thus foster a better understanding of circumstances that bring about physiological stress in humans

Experimental induction of peritraumatic dissociation: The role of negative affect and pain and their psychophysiological and neural correlates

While research has elucidated processes underlying dissociative symptoms in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, little is known about the circumstances under which trauma-related dissociation initially arises. To experimentally investigate causes and concomitants of peritraumatic dissociation, we subjected sixty-nine healthy women to aversive-audiovisual and painful-electrical stimulation in a 2(aversive/neutral film) x 2(pain/no pain) within-subject design while recording psychophysiological and fMRI-BOLD responses. Afterwards, participants rated negative-affect, pain, and dissociation for each condition. Using Bayesian multilevel regression models, we examined (1) whether aversive-audiovisual and painful-electrical stimulation elicit higher dissociation-levels than control conditions and (2) whether stronger negative-affect and pain responses (operationalized via self-report, psychophysiological, and neural markers) correlate with higher dissociation-levels. Several key findings emerged: Both aversive-audiovisual and painful-electrical stimulation elicited dissociation. Dissociation was linked to higher self-reported negative-affect, but we did not find enough evidence linking it to psychophysiological and neural negative-affect markers. However, dissociation was associated with higher levels of self-reported pain, a skin-conductance-response-based pain marker, and the fMRI-BOLD-based Neurologic-Pain-Signature. Results indicate that both aversive-audiovisual and painful stimuli can independently cause dissociation. Critically, pain responses captured via self-report, psychophysiological, and neural markers were consistently linked to higher dissociation-levels suggesting a specific, evolutionary meaningful, contribution of pain to the rise of dissociation

Estradiol during (analogue-)trauma: Risk- or protective factor for intrusive re-experiencing?

Intrusions, a key symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can occur in the form of images but also as pain sensations. Similar to audiovisual intrusions, the frequency and persistence of pain intrusions varies greatly between individuals. In the current study, we examined whether peritraumatic circulating 17β-estradiol (E2) levels are a biologic factor associated with subsequent audiovisual (i.e., film) and pain intrusion development, and whether peritraumatic stress levels modulate this relationship. Forty-one free-cycling women participated in an ecologically informed trauma-pain-conditioning (TPC) paradigm, using trauma-films and pain as unconditioned stimuli. Independent variables were salivary peritraumatic E2 levels and stress indexed by salivary cortisol and self-reported state-anxiety during TPC. Outcomes were film- and pain-intrusions occurring during daily-life in the week following TPC and a Memory-Triggering-Task in response to conditioned stimuli 24 h after TPC. In the week after analogue-trauma, higher peritraumatic E2 levels were associated with a greater probability of experiencing film-intrusions in the beginning of the week, which switched to a lower probability toward the end of the week. This time-dependent relationship between E2 and film-intrusions only held for higher state-anxious women. In contrast, results indicated a consistent inverse relationship between peritraumatic E2 levels and pain-intrusions during daily-life and Memory-Triggering-Task. Together, these data suggest that higher peritraumatic E2 levels could be associated with lower long-term visual trauma intrusions, as well as lower pain-intrusions, and thereby possibly constitute a protective biologic factor for PTSD and potentially also for chronic pain