Thermal infrared imaging in psychophysiology: potentialities and limits

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Affective Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Emotional responses involve physiological changes mediated by the sympathetic nervous system.
• These changes manifest as variations in muscular activity, blood flow, and perspiration.
• Functional infrared thermal imaging (fITI) captures these thermal signatures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review existing experimental procedures utilizing fITI for affective nature investigations.
• To analyze thermal changes in specific body regions across human and nonhuman subjects.
• To discuss methodological considerations and future directions for fITI in emotion research.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 23 experimental studies employing fITI.
• Analysis of experimental protocols and thermal data from selected regions of interest.
• Inclusion of studies involving both human and nonhuman subjects.

Main Results:

• fITI successfully detected thermal changes associated with affective states.
• Variations in thermal patterns were observed in different body regions.
• The review synthesized findings from diverse experimental setups.

Conclusions:

• fITI is a valuable tool for objective emotion assessment.
• Further research is needed to standardize baselines and experimental protocols.
• fITI holds significant potential for advancing affective neuroscience.