Wearable Sensors to Evaluate Autonomic Response to Olfactory Stimulation: The Influence of Short, Intensive Sensory Training (original) (raw)
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Electronics
Background: The sense of smell has been recently recognized as one of the most important sensory features in the human being, representing a reliable biomarker for a number of clinical conditions. The relationship between olfactory function and the person’s attitude towards food has frequently been investigated, often using questionnaires. The administration of minimally invasive methods for characterizing autonomic nervous system (ANS) functionality could help in objectivizing such measurements. Methods: The present study assessed ANS activation through the analysis of the electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) signals, in response to olfactory stimuli using non-invasive wearable devices. The ANS activation was also studied with respect to the odor familiarity, as well as with other olfactory and food dimensions (e.g., odor identification, odor pleasantness, food neophobia). Results: We demonstrated a significant activation of the ANS, in particular of its sympath...
Sensors
Wearable sensors are nowadays largely employed to assess physiological signals derived from the human body without representing a burden in terms of obtrusiveness. One of the most intriguing fields of application for such systems include the assessment of physiological responses to sensory stimuli. In this specific regard, it is not yet known which are the main psychophysiological drivers of olfactory-related pleasantness, as the current literature has demonstrated the relationship between odor familiarity and odor valence, but has not clarified the consequentiality between the two domains. Here, we enrolled a group of university students to whom olfactory training lasting 3 months was administered. Thanks to the analysis of electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) signals at the beginning and at the end of the training period, we observed different autonomic responses, with higher parasympathetically-mediated response at the end of the period with respect to the fir...
Autonomic Nervous System Responses to Odours: the Role of Pleasantness and Arousal
Chemical Senses, 2002
Perception of odours can provoke explicit reactions such as judgements of intensity or pleasantness, and implicit output such as skin conductance or heart rate variations. The main purpose of the present experiment was to ascertain: (i) the correlation between odour ratings (intensity, arousal, pleasantness and familiarity) and activation of the autonomic nervous system, and (ii) the inter-correlation between self-report ratings
Chemosensors
At present, food quality is of utmost importance, not only to comply with commercial regulations, but also to meet the expectations of consumers; this aspect includes sensory features capable of triggering emotions through the citizen’s perception. To date, key parameters for food quality assessment have been sought through analytical methods alone or in combination with a panel test, but the evaluation of panelists’ reactions via psychophysiological markers is now becoming increasingly popular. As such, the present review investigates recent applications of traditional and novel methods to the specific field. These include electronic senses (e-nose, e-tongue, and e-eye), sensory analysis, and wearables for emotion recognition. Given the advantages and limitations highlighted throughout the review for each approach (both traditional and innovative ones), it was possible to conclude that a synergy between traditional and innovative approaches could be the best way to optimally manage...
Sensors
Psychological stress is known to activate the autonomic nervous system (ANS), thus representing a useful target to be monitored to understand the physiological, unconscious effect of stress on the human body. However, little is known about how differently the ANS responds to cognitive and sensory stimulations in healthy subjects. To this extent, we enrolled 23 subjects and administered a stress protocol consisting of the administration of sensory (olfactory) and cognitive (mathematical) stressors. Autonomic parameters were unobtrusively monitored through wearable sensors for capturing electrocardiogram and skin conductance signals. The results obtained demonstrated an increase of the heart rate during both stress protocols, with a similar decrease of the heart rate variability. Cognitive stress test appears to affect the autonomic parameters to a greater extent, confirming its effects on the human body. However, olfactory stimulation could be useful to study stress in specific exper...
Basic Emotions Evoked by Odorants: Comparison Between Autonomic Responses and Self-Evaluation
1997
ALOUI-ISMAÏLI, O., ROBIN, O., RADA, H., DITTMAR, A., AND VERNET-MAURY, E. Basic emotions evoked by odorants: comparison between autonomic responses and self-evaluation. PHYSIOL BEHAV 62(4) 713-720, 1997.-The present study was designed to analyze the relationship between self-report and physiological expression of basic emotions (happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust and anger) in response to odorants. 44 subjects inhaled five odorants: vanillin, menthol, eugenol, methyl methacrylate, and propionic acid. Six autonomic nervous system (ANS) parameters were simultaneously recorded in real time and without interference: Skin Potential (SP), Skin Resistance (SR), Skin Temperature (ST), Skin Blood Flow (SBF), Instantaneous Respiratory Frequency (IRF) and Instantaneous Heart Rate (IHR). At the end of the recording, subjects were instructed i) to identify the odorants roughly ii) to situate them on an 11-point hedonic scale from highly pleasant (0) to highly unpleasant (10); and iii) to define what type of basic emotion was evoked by each odorant. In this study, the expected affects were aroused in the subjects. Vanillin and menthol were rated pleasant, while methyl methacrylate and propionic acid were judged unpleasant. Eugenol was median in hedonic estimation. ANS evaluation (each autonomic pattern induced by an odorant was transcripted into a basic emotion) shows that pleasantly connoted odorants evoked mainly happiness and surprise, but that unpleasant ones induced mainly disgust and anger. Eugenol was associated with positive and negative affects. Comparison between conscious (verbal) and unconscious (ANS) emotions, reveals that these two estimations 1) were not significantly different as far as the two pleasant odorants were concerned, 2) showed a tendency to be significantly different for eugenol odorant which was variably scored on the hedonic axis, and 3) exhibited a significant difference for the two unpleasant odorants, for which the corresponding ''verbal emotion'' was mainly ''disgust'', while the most frequent ANS emotion was ''anger''. In conclusion, these results show quite a good correlation between verbal and ANS estimated basic emotions. The main difference concerns anger: while there is a high occurrence of this emotion revealed by the analysis of ANS responses, it does not appear to be easily expressed through the verbal channel. ᭧ 1997
Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 2018
In recent years, the user experience has gradually become the main focus in the design of consumer products, rather than the products' features and functions. Therefore, designers should consider the user experience to be of paramount importance in the development of a successful product. In addition, user experience is not static, but rather it changes over the different stages of usage due to the variations in consumers' sensory modalities and emotional responses. Therefore, this study aims to use psychophysiological measures to explore how the interaction between the user and the product at each different stage influences sensory modalities and emotional responses to products. The experiment was conducted in five stages according to the different levels of interaction for two tea products. Subjective data about sensory modalities and emotions related to the products were collected. In addition, the research gathered objective data to examine the feasibility of relating physiological measures to subjective experiences. The results showed that the tea experience tends to be dynamic over the different stages of usage, demonstrating important variations in the different sensory modalities and emotional feedback. In addition, physiological signals such as galvanic skin response, have been shown to be of potential value for evaluation of the user's emotional reaction. Our findings could be important not only for a theoretical understanding of sensory and emotional feedback in a product experience but also as a measure of user experience using psychophysiological methods.
Emotional Responses to Pleasant and Unpleasant Oral Flavour Stimuli
Chemosensory Perception
The hedonic valence of taste perception plays a crucial role in the control of responses related to feeding behaviour. Taste and olfaction perception can induce autonomic responses, such as heart rate variability (HRV), which are involved in the evoked emotional reactions. Analysis of HRV can help distinguish sympathetic from parasympathetic regulation of the sinoatrial node. In this work, we analysed the HRV associated with oral flavour stimuli with opposite hedonic dimension and assessed their sympathovagal balance. ECGs were recorded continuously on 11 men and 12 women before and after stimulations. Experiments were performed in two sessions for comparison. ANOVA highlighted the decreases and increases of sinusal rhythm associated with pleasant and unpleasant flavour stimulations, respectively. Time and frequency domain analysis of HRV indicates that bradycardia induced by the pleasant stimulus can be attributed to an increase in the vagal tone, whilst tachycardia evoked by the unpleasant stimulus denotes a reduction of the vagal tone in women and an increase of the sympathetic tone in men. In conclusion, our data suggest that the HRV analysis may represent a valuable tool for autonomic nervous system response characterization associated to the hedonic dimension of the complex flavour sensations induced by food and/or beverages.
Explicit Sensory Training Improves the Olfactory Sensitivity of Wine Experts
Chemosensory Perception, 2012
Wine quality is first assessed by experts who evaluate the sensory characteristics of the product using sensory skills. Several studies have shown considerable variation in chemosensory human capacities, including wine tasting experts. Some of them show high olfactory detection thresholds for some key compounds of wine. In addition, several authors have observed an induction of sensitivity in subjects with odor-specific hyposmia and increased sensitivity in persons without specific olfactory disorders after repeated exposure to a substance or practice fragrance smell tests. Given these observations, adapted training for professionals in the wine industry may be appropriate. On this basis, we tested a simple sensory training session, that is to say repeated short-term exposures to odorous wine key compounds, with the hope of improving the detection capabilities of wine professionals who need it. Our results show that the sensitivity of these experts can be changed: the olfactory detection thresholds are reduced in the experts trained. This improvement was limited to the odorant used in the training: learning was not generalized but was odorant specific.