Positive emotional reactions to loved names

Abstract

Studies concerning personal attachment have successfully used loved familiar faces to prompt positive affective and physiological reactions. Moreover, the processing of emotional words shows similar physiological patterns to those found with affective pictures. The objective of this study was to assess whether the passive viewing of loved names would produce a pattern of subjective and physiological reactivity similar to that produced by the passive viewing of loved faces. The results showed that, compared to neutral (unknown) and famous names, loved names produced a biphasic pattern of heart rate deceleration‐acceleration, heightened skin conductance and zygomaticus muscle activity, inhibition of corrugator muscle activity, and potentiation of the startle reflex response. This pattern of physiological responses was accompanied by subjective reports of higher positive affect and arousal for loved names than for neutral and famous ones. These findings highlight not only the similarity but also the differences between the affective processing of identity recognition by loved faces and names.

The affective processing of loved familiar faces and names: Integrating fMRI and heart rate

“…The present study showed heart rate responses that replicated, for the first time within an fMRI scanner, previous findings concerning loved familiar faces [19], [42], [43] and names [47]: larger increases in heart rate for loved faces and names than for neutral ones. Although not significant, there was also a tendency for the accelerative response to be larger for faces than names.…”

“…This pattern of response is similar to the heart rate response found in numerous studies using the passive picture-viewing paradigm when participants were viewing highly arousing pleasant pictures selected from the IAPS [7]. It is also similar to the heart rate response found in previous studies when participants were viewing loved faces and names [19], [42], [43], [47]. The major difference with respect to previous studies was in reference to the latency of the accelerative response.…”

“…Regarding research on perception and language processing, several studies have revealed an opposite pattern of responses concerning the modulation of the startle reflex by viewing emotional pictures and reading emotional words, which has critically been attributed to their different depth of processing [48], [49]. The same opposite pattern concerning the modulation of the startle reflex has been found when emotional pictures were loved familiar faces [19] and when emotional words were loved familiar names [47]. Unlike face processing, name processing seems to rest on mental representation, therefore, requiring deeper processing strategies.…”

“…Only one study on name-identity recognition has applied the passive picture-viewing paradigm to the investigation of loved familiar names [47]. In this study, the same peripheral physiological measures used for faces were recorded while participants were viewing three categories of written names: loved familiar names (romantic partner, father, mother, and best friend), famous names (selected by each participant with instructions that the names did not evoke either positive or negative feelings), and unknown names (loved names of other participant).…”

Quantifying defence cascade responses as indicators of pig affect and welfare using computer vision methods

“…The model thus predicts an increased startle, resulting in lower overall costs, when beneficial opportunities are available such as during reward anticipation. Other exceptions include that startle was potentiated when viewing the names of loved ones compared to neutral or famous names 52 and that anxiolytics had no effects on fear-potentiated startle 53 . Likewise, enrichment 25 and preferred home cage odour 54 did not attenuate startle in rats, and chronic mild stress failed to potentiate startle in mice 55 .…”