• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37 no.5C
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• pp.393-402
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• 2012

In this study, we propose a signal processing algorithm to measure the arousal level of a human subject using a PPG(Photoplethysmography) sensor. From the measured PPG signals, the arousal level is determined by PPI(Pulse to Pulse Interval) and discrete-time signal processing. We ran psychophysical experiments displaying visual stimuli on TV display while measuring PPG signal from a finger, where the nature landscape scenes were used for restorative effect, and the urban environments were used to stimulate the stress. However, the measured PPG signals may include noise due to subject movement and measurement error, which results in incorrect detections. In this paper, to mitigate the noise impact on stimulus detection, we propose a detecting algorithm using digital signal processing methods and statistics of measured signals. A filter is adopted to remove a high frequency noise and adaptively designed taking into account the statistics of the measured PPG signals. Moreover we employ a hysteresis method to reduce the distortion of PPI in decision of emotional. Via experiment, we show that the proposed scheme reduces signal noise and improves stimulus detection.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.411-418
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• 2007

Exposure to low frequency noise(LFN) can lead to vibroacoustic diseases(VADs), which include a systemic disease with lesions in a broad spectrum of organs and a psychiatric condition. It is known that VAD is an established risk factor for the development of many psychological conditions in humans and rodents, including major depression and anxiety disorder. The present study investigated the effects of LFN on neuronal stress responses in the rat brain. The neuronal expression of the proto-oncogene c-fos in the paraventricular nucleus(PVN) of the hypothalamus and tyrosine hydroxylase(TH) in the LC was observed. The immunocytochemical detection of the Fos protein and TH has been used as a marker of neuronal activation in response to stress. In addition, corticosterone concentration was evaluated by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The LFN groups were exposed to 32.5Hz and 125Hz of noise(4hr/day for 2days). The numbers of c-fos and TH-immunoreactive cells in the PVN and LC were significantly increased in the LFN groups(32.5Hz and 125Hz) compared to the normal group. Corticosterone concentration in plasma was also increased in LFN groups. The present results demonstrated that exposure with LFN produced a pronounced increase in expression of c-Fos and TH in stress-relevant brain areas. These results suggest that the neural characteristics involved in LFN are similar to those activated by typical processive stressors. These results also suggest that the central and peripheral activations by LFN may be related to LFN-related negative behavioral dysfunctions such as VADs.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.385-416
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• 2014

In this study, memory for emotional words was compared between extraverts and introverts, employing signal detection analysis to distinguish differences in discriminative memory and response bias. Subjects were presented with a study list of emotional words in an encoding session, followed by a recognition session. Effects of task difficulty were examined by varying the nature of the encoding task and the intervals between study and test. For an easy task, with a retention interval of 5 minutes (Study I), introverts exhibited better memory (i.e., higher d') than extraverts, particularly for low-frequency words, and response biases did not differ between these two groups. For a difficult task, with a one-month retention period (Study II), performance was poor overall, and only high-frequency words were remembered; also extraverts adopted a more liberal criterion for 'old' responses (i.e., more hits and more false alarms) for positive emotional-valence words. These results suggest that as task difficulty drives down performance, effects of internal control processes become more apparent, revealing differences in response biases for positive words between extraverts and introverts. These results show that extraversion can distort memory performance for words, depending on their emotional valence.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.301-322
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• 2015

This study examined the effect of emotional sounds on satisfaction of search (SOS). SOS occurs when detection of a target results in a lesser chance of finding subsequent targets when searching for an unknown number of targets. Previous studies have examined factors that may influence the phenomenon, but the effect of emotional sounds is yet to be identified. Therefore, the current study investigated how emotional sound affects magnitude of the SOS effect. In addition, participants' eye movements were recorded to determine the source of SOS errors. The search display included abstract T and L-shaped items on a cloudy background and positive and negative sounds. Results demonstrated that negative sounds produced the largest SOS effect by definition, but this was due to superior accuracy in low-salient single target trials. Response time, which represents efficiency, was consistently faster when negative sounds were provided, in all target conditions. On-target fixation classification revealed scanning error, which occurs because targets are not fixated, as the most prominent type of error. These results imply that the two dimensions of emotion - valence and arousal - interactively affect cognitive performance.

• Mood & Emotion
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2012

Suicide is a complex behavior associated with various neurobiological and psychosocial factors. It is considered that genetic polymorphism combined with environmental stress such as child-adolescent trauma make differences in neurobiological systems, which cause psychiatric disorders or pessimistic personality, impulse-aggressive behaviors, lack of judgment, and finally result in suicidal behavior. Much progress in the neurobiology of suicide has been made over the several decades. There seems to be a hereditary disposition to suicide independent of psychiatric disorder. The changes in neurotransmitters, neurohormones, neurotrophic factors, cytokines, lipid metabolisms related with their genetic polymorphism can contribute to disturbance of signal transductions and neuronal circuits vulnerable to suicide. It is likely that the main factors are dysfunctions of serotonin (5-HT) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Our understanding about the neurobiology of suicide is still limited. However, clinical practice could be assisted by neurobiological findings capable of making the detection of risk populations with higher sensitivity and the development of new treatment interventions. The settlement of biological markers in suicidal behaviors and their relationships is required.