2025/01/22 by Sewon Oh, Xuan Yang, William M. Hayes +3 · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Aesthetic Perception and Analysis #Color perception and design #Multisensory perception and integration
paper · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.108994
openalex publication_date 2025/01/22 · openalex created_date 2025/01/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We examined differences in physiological responses to aversive and non-aversive naturalistic audiovisual stimuli and their auditory and visual components within the same experiment. We recorded five physiological measures that have been shown to be sensitive to affect: electrocardiogram, electromyography (EMG) for zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles, electrodermal activity (EDA), and skin temperature. Valence and arousal ratings confirmed that aversive stimuli were more negative in valence and higher in arousal than non-aversive stimuli. Valence also showed an emotional enhancement effect for cross-modal integration. Both heart rate deceleration and facial EMG potentiation for corrugator supercilii were larger for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for audiovisual stimuli and their auditory components, even after controlling for arousal. Facial EMG potentiation for zygomaticus major was greater for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for audiovisual stimuli and EDA was greater for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for visual stimuli. Neither of these effects remained significant after controlling for arousal. These findings provide a benchmark for examining atypical sensory processing of mundane aversive stimuli for clinical populations. • Audiovisual clips and their components were examined in the same experiment. • Heart rate deceleration for aversive audiovisual clips and their auditory components. • Increased corrugator supercilii potentiation for aversive audiovisual clips. • Increased corrugator supercilii potentiation for aversive auditory components. • Overall, physiological responses to the visual component were less distinct.