Skin Deep: Using EDA to Measure Affective Response
We say something “gets under our skin” when it elicits an unpleasant or irritating emotional response. This connection between our skin and emotion runs deeper than a simple idiomatic expression, however. Along with performing several critical functions—protective,...
Guilt Trips: Taking Measure of Our Moral Compass
“So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt” —Gertrude, William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” In Act 4 of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude points out that the harder one tries to conceal guilt, the easier it is to...
Measuring Moods: Signals for Insight into Emotion
“Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head?” Joy, an anthropomorphized manifestation of happiness, delivers this line at the opening of Pixar’s 2015 animated hit “Inside Out,” a film that explores the emotional struggles of its young...
Baby Blues: Neonatal, Infant, and Toddler Research Challenges
The first five years of a child’s life are marked by considerable change—both physiological and psychological. Young children undergo incremental development in their ability to think and solve problems, their emotions, and their linguistic abilities, to name just a...
Choosing the Right Signal: Easy as 1, 2, 3
In physiology and life sciences, researchers rely on a wide range of signals to gather data from humans and animals. These signals provide critical insight into how complex organisms function under a myriad of conditions. However, this wealth of potential data sources can also present a challenge for researchers: choosing the right signals on which to focus their data gathering. For those lacking a background in the disciplines and mechanisms behind these signals, sifting through the available methodology can be overwhelming. The best place to begin is by considering one or a combination of the “Big Three” physiological signals: ECG, EDA, and respiration.
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