Abstract

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.

Conclusion: Methodologically, designs with these pure emotions and their transitions are applicable, and results per se are specifically interpretable in patients with emotion-related problems.

Keywords: Brainstem reflex, cortical activity, external-emotional stimuli, external-emotional transition, polygraph, mental health.