Physiological Responses Induced by Pleasant Stimuli

Abstract

The specific physiological responses induced by pleasant stimuli were investigated in this study. Various physiological responses of the brain (encephaloelectrogram; EEG), autonomic nervous system (ANS), immune system and endocrine system were monitored when pleasant stimuli such as odors, emotional pictures and rakugo, a typical Japanese comical story-telling, were presented to subjects. The results revealed that (i) EEG activities of the left frontal brain region were enhanced by a pleasant odor; (ii) emotional pictures related to primitive element such as nudes and erotic couples elevated vasomotor sympathetic nervous activity; and (iii) an increase in secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and a decrease in salivary cortisol (s-cortisol) were induced by rakugo-derived linguistic pleasant emotion. Pleasant emotion is complicated state. However, by considering the evolutionary history of human being, it is possible to assess and evaluate pleasant emotion from certain physiological responses by appropriately summating various physiological parameters.

A Semester-long Student-directed Research Project Involving Enzyme Immunoassay: Appropriate for Immunology, Endocrinology, or Neuroscience Courses

“…The student projects aimed at assessing the relationship between immunity and stress are analyzed within this emerging theoretical framework. Interestingly, many studies (e.g., Pawlow andJones, 2005, Watanuki andKim, 2005) but not all (e.g., Ng et al, 2003;Park and Watanuki, 2005) detect a reciprocal relationship between cortisol and sIgA. Increases in sIgA have been observed within as little time as 0.5 h (Pawlow and Jones, 2005) to 1 h (Bishop et al, 2006).…”

Physiological effect of olfactory stimuli inhalation in humans: an overview

“…Scent emotional and behaviour effects are being assessed by methods like electroencephalogram (EEG), contingent negative variation (CNV), near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and, while being more complex and more expensive than others, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [7,8,[18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Both physiological activities, when increased, might indicate anxiety, stress or stimulating effect, whereas decreases generally signify relaxation [8,18,20]. Hongratanaworakit and Buchbauer evaluated sweet orange inhalation, representing a stimulating effect, increasing heart rate and subjective alertness [29].…”

O efeito da música no estresse de pacientes adultos durante cirurgias odontológicas: estudo randomizado, caso-controle e multiparamétrico

“…A ativação induzida pelo estresse do eixo HPA (hipotálamo-pituitária-adrenal) principalmente leva à secreção do hormônio ACTH (hormônio adrenocorticotrófico) e cortisol (Knight;Rickard, 2011). Estes hormônios em altas concentrações podem suprimir alguns aspectos da função imunológica e tem potencialmente efeitos negativos na saúde (Watanuki;Kim, 2005;Stegeren et al, 2006;Fan et al 2009, Gerritsen et al, 2009.…”

“…A avaliação do cortisol na saliva pode ser uma ferramenta válida e confiável como reflexo do hormônio livre no sangue (Watanuki;Kim, 2005;Stegeren et al, 2006;Fan et al, 2009, Gerritsen et al, 2009Fukui et al, 2010). A elevação dos níveis de cortisol salivar pode resultar a partir do estresse fisiológico como do estresse psicológico.…”