Effect of Visual and Auditory Stimuli on Heart Rate

Effect of Visual and Auditory Stimuli on Heart Rate Introduction Humans, despite being a part of animal family do not behave similar to most of the species. The way to produce a movement is longer and more complex, simply because we undertake a lot of action consciously, or at least we think so. Although we do not know how many of the adjustments and decisions, we make in order to survive, are conscious, it is the complex thinking process that distinguishes us clearly from the rest of the species. In some situations that demand high-alertness we can still see the primitive, almost animal-like side of ourselves. We can perceive that clearly through functions that physiologically manifest our emotional expression, such as mobilizing muscles and glands and having our sensory systems on alert (Lang and Bradley, 2010). These physiological responses can tell us a lot about the experienced emotions. Each emotion is â€Å"goal-oriented†, hence we see the classic â€Å"fight or flight† sympathetic and â€Å"rest and digest† parasympath etic autonomic responses, which prepare the body to undertake a particular action (Stemmler, 2004). However, we learned how to regulate our own emotions by thinking in specific ways, to feel safe and secure. In order to investigate emotion-regulation and learning in high-alertness situations, the emotion has to be induced in the subject. This can be done through various means, one of which is conditioning. Pavlovian fear conditioning is a model system to study the neural mechanisms of associative learning and memory, which has been widely used for the past few decades. This type of learning uses a conditioned stimulus (CS) and pairs it with an irritating, unconditional stimulus (UCS). The outcome of this form of learning is typically a behavioural conditional response which demonstrated itself by eliciting reaction to the CS presented alone. Many evidences in non-human studies confirm that animals are able to learn the association between the CS and UCS. (Davies, 2000; LeDoux,2000; Phelps and LeDoux, 2005). The process of â€Å"unlearning† the conditioned association human learned to self-regulate the unwanted emotions; to suppress a previously learned fear. Fear extinction thus, refers to decrement in conditioned fear responses that we observe while a person is presented with repetition of a conditioned fear stimulus (Milad and Quirk, 2012). Otherwise, it is as a gradual process of erasing the initial association between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus by showing the conditioned stimulus repeatedly on its own (Pavlov, 1927).These days, however, scientists are sceptical on whether the extinction erases the initial association or rather forms a completely new association that inhibits the expression of the conditioned memory. While many researchers interested in fear extinction see the advantage of using the electric shock as the UCS paired with CS there is a good amount of studies providing the evidence that an auditory stimulus can also be a powerful unconditioned stimulus (Lang and Bradley, 2000; Baumgartner et al., 2006b). Baumgartner et al. (2006b) showed increased activity in emotion processing brain structures when visual, emotional stimuli were combined with congruent musical excerpts compared to visual stimuli alone. The subjective and psychological variables between modalities were compared to find out that the level of involvement was higher for music than for pictures. However, the subjectively experienced emotion overlapped better with the intended emotion for pictures than for music. In terms of modality, the sound and images are very different. What is also different is that the sound lacks the clear meaning, which images convey almost immediately. In 2000, Bradley and Lang developed IADS, a database containing auditory stimuli rated for arousal, valence, and dominance. The relatively short musical excerpts carry clear inherent meaning (e.g., scream, the sound of a cheering crowd, or a gun shot). The sounds from IADS, as it was found by Bradley and Lang (2000) themselves, produced similar re actions to visual stimuli from IAPS. In the current study, we aim to induce an emotional state of fear by presenting neutral visual stimuli (CS, yellow or blue square) paired with the auditory stimuli (UCS, scream) eliciting specific arousal levels in blocks. in a laboratory setting, we examine heart rate variability and skin conductance using the information about the onset of the stimulus. The advantage of a quiet booth over the loud fMRI when taking simple physiological measures are multiple. First of all, the booth represents a more natural environment resembling a simplistic version a smaller size room. Participants are in a seated position, which is also a natural position for them to be in. These two factors draw out the preliminary stress associated with the unusual, unnatural setting of studies done in the scanner. Second of all, the quality of the EDA and EEG often contain heavy noises obtained due to magnetic force which disrupts the functioning of the measurement devices. Thus, measuring these indexes of physiological activity outside the scanner almost guarantees an output free of magnetic force contamination. To summarize, in the current study, we use blocks of bimodal stimuli to induce certain arousal levels. We determine effects of the paired stimulus valence and arousal, as well as their interaction, on pulse-derived interbeat interval and skin conductance. The following section explains the principles behind the dependent variables in the current study (pulse-derived IBI and skin conductance) in a form of a short overview. Specifically, it shows how these variables can be affected by emotional stimuli in valence- and arousal-related studies. CARDIOVASCULAR MEASURES Activation and suppression of sympathetic and parasympathetic system can both affect the heart rate and its variability, which can be divided into three frequency bands. Three main sources are reflected through these bands (Veltman and Gaillard, 1998): slow changes (0.02-0.06 Hz), mid-range changes (0.07-0.14 Hz) and fast changes (0.15-0.50 Hz). There are specific processes that cause each of those changes. Temperature regulation cause slow changes; resonance in the veins caused by the blood pressure regulation is related to mid-range changes; and breathing reflects the fast changes. All three bands reflect the effects of parasympathetic system, but only rhe slow and mid frequency bands show the effects of sympathetic system (Berger et al., 1989). Heart rate adapts to the blood pressure when in resting condition. However, some particular circumstances, such as mental workload during a difficult task, can lessen this adaption, which can be reflected through decreasing heart rate variability (Aasman et al., 1987). Heart rate measures can be affected by the sympathetic as well as parasympathetic system and other physiological processes. Heart rate acceleration was positively correlated with recall of both pleasant and unpleasant memories (Rainville et al., 2006). This suggests that arousal influences heart rate. Heart rate deceleration was also found to be greater for high arousal unpleasant sounds in comparison with low arousal unpleasant sounds (Bradley and Lang, 2000). In the recent paper by Chandola et al. (2010) reviewing studies that examined the heart rate variability and work stress association, work stress was associated with lower heart rate variability. A recent review on studies that examined the association of heart rate variability and work stress concluded that reported work stress is associated with lower heart rate variability  (Chandola et al., 2010). Studies on heart rate variability and emotions are mostly dealing with fear or anxiety (George et al., 1989; Friedman and Thayer, 1998; Rao and Yeregani, 2001) where heart rate variability decreases with increased levels of fear. In a study where participants relived emotions, Rainville et al. (2006) found that besides fear, also sadness and happiness decreased high frequency heart rate variability. In contrast to these studies that suggest a negative relation between heart rate variability and arousal, studies in which emotional visual stimuli were used, report increased heart rate variability for erotic images (Ritz et al., 2005) as well as for aversive visual stimuli (Sokhadze, 2007). Whereas studies on mental workload focus their analyses on midfrequency heart rate variability (reflecting both sympathetic and parasympathetic control), studies on emotions focus on the high  frequency band (only parasympathetic). SKIN CONDUCTANCE Electrical skin conductance varies with the moisture level of the skin. Since the sweat glands are controlled by the sympathetic part of the autonomous nervous system (Roth, 1983), skin conductance measures can be taken to indicate arousal. Indeed, a large number of studies found an increase in skin conductance with arousal (independent of valence) (Tucker and Williamson, 1984; Winton et al., 1984; Greenwald et al., 1989; Bradley et al., 1990; Tremayne and Barry, 1990, 2001; Cook et al., 1991; Boucsein, 1992, 1999; Barry and Sokolov, 1993; Khalfa et al., 2002). As Table 1 in Chanel et al. (2009) indicates, skin conductance measures are perhaps the most popular physiological signal in studies trying to classify emotional states on the basis of (neuro)physiological signals. Arousal seems more closely associated with increases in skin conductance than heart rate (Barry and Sokolov, 1993; Croft et al., 2004; Wilkes et al., 2010). Skin conductance responses vary with rated arousal in emotional/neutral picture viewing tasks (Lang et al., 1993, 1998; Greenwald et al., 1989). AIM AND HYPOTHESIS We here test whether within a single group of observers rather than different groups, unpleasant sound, and neutral pictures combined will have an effect on physiological responses. Specifically, we predict for physiological responses to increase during the unpleasant sound. Moreover, we investigate whether elicited emotions (ratings) and their physiological correlates (skin conductance, pulse-derived IBI) when only the visual stimulus is present (blue or yellow square). We predict heart deceleration and increase in skin conductance response to paired stimulus (visual (blue or yellow square)+ audio (unpleasant sound)) in the learning phase. Our second prediction states that this association will be erased during the extinction phase when the stimulus (visual (blue or yellow square)) will be repetitively shown alone.

Jazz Concert Report

Before taking Jazz class I barely knew anything about this type music. Six different bands performed fifteen pieces. Most of the pieces are written by popular Jazz composers, such as â€Å"Cantaloupe Island† by Herbie Hancock or â€Å"Donna Lee† by Charlie Parker. Also, there was one band that performed pieces written by its members, which really impressed me. For example, â€Å"Preparation† was composed by Alex Reiff, who plays bass in the band called Krista White 3 PM Combo. In this report I would like to pay attention on two pieces that I enjoyed the most.The first piece is â€Å"A Phone Call with Janet† written by Jessie Crossen, trombonist in the band Krista White 3 PM Combo. One of the band’s members said that Janet happens to be Aaron Smith’s trumpeter’s mother. What was noticeable is that the composition starts with bass playing. The dynamics are very quiet in the beginning, as if somebody was starting a conversation on the pho ne really quietly. When trombonist starts improvising, the rhythm starts to get faster and dynamics get louder and louder. I associated faster rhythm and loud dynamics with a phone argument between two people.The pianist was improvising last. Here dynamics got softer and quieter, and rhythm gets slower, which makes it seem that the argument was resolved. In the conclusion, all instruments end the composition. The second piece I wanted to pay attention to is â€Å"Take the A Train† that was originally composed by Billy Strayhorn. At the Sac State Jazz Combos Concert it was performed by Oliver Graham Combo band. It so happened that 2 days before this concert I read about Billy Strayhorn in my Music class and it was very interesting to listen how these guys would perform it. The composition starts with all instruments playing.Then pianist improvised first. After pianist, alto took turn to improvise. One could notice a very interesting and a little bit unusual exchange between gu itarist and drummer. The form of â€Å"Take the A Train† composition is 32-bar. The rhythm gets faster toward the middle of the song and dynamics are moderate throughout the composition. Overall, the concert was really great opportunity to experience a new style of music. I never thought Jazz could be the type of music I could listen to. This concert was the first Jazz concert I went to and I am looking forward to attend more in a future. Jazz Concert Report Before taking Jazz class I barely knew anything about this type music. Six different bands performed fifteen pieces. Most of the pieces are written by popular Jazz composers, such as â€Å"Cantaloupe Island† by Herbie Hancock or â€Å"Donna Lee† by Charlie Parker. Also, there was one band that performed pieces written by its members, which really impressed me. For example, â€Å"Preparation† was composed by Alex Reiff, who plays bass in the band called Krista White 3 PM Combo. In this report I would like to pay attention on two pieces that I enjoyed the most.The first piece is â€Å"A Phone Call with Janet† written by Jessie Crossen, trombonist in the band Krista White 3 PM Combo. One of the band’s members said that Janet happens to be Aaron Smith’s trumpeter’s mother. What was noticeable is that the composition starts with bass playing. The dynamics are very quiet in the beginning, as if somebody was starting a conversation on the pho ne really quietly.When trombonist starts improvising, the rhythm starts to get faster and dynamics get louder and louder. I associated faster rhythm and loud dynamics with a phone argument between two people. The pianist was improvising last. Here dynamics got softer and quieter, and rhythm gets slower, which makes it seem that the argument was resolved. In the conclusion, all instruments end the composition.The second piece I wanted to pay attention to is â€Å"Take the A Train† that was originally composed by Billy Strayhorn. At the Sac State Jazz Combos Concert it was performed by Oliver Graham Combo band. It so happened that 2 days before this concert I read about Billy Strayhorn in my Music class and it was very interesting to listen how these guys would perform it. The composition starts with all instruments playing.Then pianist improvised first. After pianist, alto took turn to improvise. One could notice a very interesting and a little bit unusual exchange between gui tarist and drummer. The form of â€Å"Take the A Train† composition is 32-bar. The rhythm gets faster  toward the middle of the song and dynamics are moderate throughout the composition.Overall, the concert was really great opportunity to experience a new style of music. I never thought Jazz could be the type of music I could listen to. This concert was the first Jazz concert I went to and I am looking forward to attend more in a future.

Easy Scholarships for International Students

Easy Scholarships for International StudentsOn this post we will do our best to find some great opportunities for Easy Scholarships for International Students that they can utilize. We will continue to add to this page, so be sure to check it out again. The United States is one of the prime destinations for students who are looking to benefit from a top notch and widely recognized international education. Being a student in USA, you are limited to very few scholarship options. To help you, we have collected information from several resources to come up with a list of Easy Scholarships 2017 for students in the USA as well as few scholarship opportunities granted by US government and institutions.Easy Scholarships for International Students – By the GovernmentForeign Fulbright Student Program The Fulbright Foreign Student Program enables graduate students, young professionals and artists from abroad to study and conduct research in the United States. The Fulbright Foreign Student Program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide. Approximately 4,000 foreign students receive Fulbright scholarships each year. Humphrey Fellowship Program The Humphrey Fellowship Program is for experienced professionals interested in strengthening their leadership skills through a mutual exchange of knowledge and understanding about issues of common concern in the U.S. and Fellows’ home countries. As a non-degree program, the Fellowship offers valuable opportunities for professional development through selected university courses, attending conferences, networking, and practical work experiences.Easy Scholarships for International Students by US Colleges and Universities American University Scholarships American University (AU) awards a limited number of generous partial merit scholarships. American University’s merit awards for international students are partial, not full, scholarships. They are highly competitive and based on a combination of outstanding academic achievement, excellent communication skills in English, leadership, volunteerism, and community service. AU Emerging Global Leader Scholarship Program The AU EGL scholarship covers all billable AU expenses (full tuition, room and board) for one international student who will need a visa (preferably an F-1 or J-1 student visa) to study in the United States. The scholarship does not cover non-billable expenses such as mandatory health insurance, books, airline tickets and miscellaneous expenses (approximately U.S.$4,000 per year). Amherst College Scholarships The award is sometimes called an â€Å"aid package† because it may include both self-help (employment) and gift aid (scholarships and grants). Students with lower financial need will be offered self-help. Students with greater need will be offered a combination of self-help and gift aid. Amherst College has replace all initially packaged, need based student loans with grant assistance and also offers $2,000 in an employment opportunity. Come back soon as we will continue to add to this page†¦ If you need help writing an Essay, feel free to contact us and check out our 6000+ free resources

Causes of Obesity in America Essay examples - 922 Words

Obesity is becoming one of the biggest problems in the country, but there has to be reasons for it. It can be the economy, society now, or people and companies. It’s time that our country starts to realize that we can’t live like this anymore. We need to see what is causing the sudden rise in obesity, and what we can do to fix it. Education of risks and solutions can be very helpful. Obesity is killing so many people, yet is still 100 percent avoidable. Our country is beginning to care less and really let themselves go. The fast food industry, supermarkets, and schools are the ones at fault for the spreading problem of obesity. To start exercising this issue we need to see what available options there are to turn this around. We have to†¦show more content†¦Are these said companies and schools starting to overlook some money and worry more about the peoples health with the actions and campaigns? A prime example of these actions is the governor of new york banning enormous drink sizes in 7-11, (Ghorayshi, 10). Looking at all of the actions that companies and politicians are taking are we seeing them as annoying or life saving? Maybe these actions are just too over the top and that is why they are perceived as annoying and unnecessary. Thinking that way maybe its little things that places like schools and supermarkets can do that will make the biggest difference in the whole situation. The placement of the food and even the name of the food is a way to trick peoples minds into getting better options. If we place the healthier food items in the front of lines and stores people tend to be more drawn to them, because they will get them first and studies have shown that depending on what you first get you will end up basing everything else that you get around those first few items that you get. 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