Background:
Responses to external emotional-stimuli or their transitions might help to
elucidate the scientific background and assist the clinical management of psychiatric problems, but
pure emotional-materials and their utilization at different levels of neurophysiological processing
are few.
Objective:
We aimed to describe the responses at central and peripheral levels in healthy volunteers
and psychiatric patients when facing external emotions and their transitions.
Methods:
Using pictures and sounds with pure emotions of Disgust, Erotica, Fear, Happiness, Neutral,
and Sadness or their transitions as stimuli, we have developed a series of non-invasive techniques,
i.e., the event-related potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging, excitatory and
inhibitory brainstem reflexes, and polygraph, to assess different levels of neurophysiological responses
in different populations.
Results:
Sample outcomes on various conditions were specific and distinguishable at cortical to
peripheral levels in bipolar I and II disorder patients compared to healthy volunteers.
Conclusions:
Methodologically, designs with these pure emotions and their transitions are applicable,
and results per se are specifically interpretable in patients with emotion-related problems.
