Psychophysiology
Encyclopedia
Psychophysiology is the branch of psychology
that is concerned with the physiological
bases of psychological
processes. While psychophysiology was a general broad field of research in the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become quite specialized, and has branched into subspecializations. For example, Social Psychophysiology, Cardiovascular Psychophysiology, Cognitive Psychophysiology, and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Some people have difficulty distinguishing a psychophysiologist from a physiological psychologist, two very different perspectives. Psychologists are interested in why we may fear spider
s and physiologists may be interested in the input/output system of the amygdala
. A psychophysiologist will attempt to link the two. Psychophysiologists almost always study the psychological/physiological link in intact human subjects. While early psychophysiologists almost always examined the impact of psychological states on physiological system responses, since the 1970s, psychophysiologists also frequently study the impact of physiological states and systems on psychological states and processes. It is this perspective of studying the interface of mind and body that makes psychophysiologists most distinct.
Historically, most psychophysiologists tended to examine the physiological responses and organ systems innervated by the autonomic nervous system. More recently, psychophysiologists have been equally, or potentially more, interested in the central nervous system, exploring cortical brain potentials such as the many types of event-related potentials (ERPs), brain waves, and utilizing advanced technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), MRI, PET, MEG, and other neuroimagery techniques.
Continuing the comparison between a psychophysiologist and a physiological psychologist, a psychophysiologist may look at how exposure to a stressful situation will produce a result in the cardiovascular system such as a change in heart rate (HR), vasodilation/vasoconstriction, myocardial contractility, or stroke volume. A physiological psychologist may look at how one cardiovascular event may influence another cardiovascular or endocrine event, or how activation of one neural brain structure exerts excitatory activity in another neural structure which then induces an inhibitory effect in some other system. Often, physiological psychologists examine the effects that they study in infrahuman subjects using surgical or invasive techniques and processes.
Psychophysiology is closely related to the field of Neuroscience and Social neuroscience
, which primarily concerns itself with relationships between psychological events and brain
responses. Psychophysiology is also related to the medical discipline known as psychosomatics.
While psychophysiology was a discipline off the mainstream of psychological and medical science prior to roughly the 1960 and 1970s, more recently, psychophysiology has found itself positioned at the intersection of psychological and medical science, and its popularity and importance have expanded commensurately with the realization of the inter-relatedness of mind and body.
, GSR), cardiovascular measures (heart rate
, HR; beats per minute, BPM; heart rate variability
, HRV; vasomotor activity), muscle activity (electromyography
, EMG), changes in pupil diameter with thought and emotion (pupillometry) and eye movements, recorded via the electro-oculogram (EOG) and direction-of-gaze methods.
Physiological sensors have been used to detect emotions in Schools and Intelligent Tutoring Systems
that incorporates real-time software adaption to the psychophysiological activity of the user. The main goal of this is to build a computer that responds to user emotion, cognition and motivation. The approach is to enable implicit and symmetrical human-computer communication by granting the software access to a representation of the user's psychological status.
There are several possible methods to represent the psychological state of the user (discussed in the affective computing
page). The advantages of using psychophysiological indices are that their changes are continuous, measures are covert and implicit, and only available data source when the user interacts with the computer without any explicit communication or input device. These systems rely upon an assumption that the psychophysiological measure is an accurate one-to-one representation of a relevant psychological dimension such as mental effort, task engagement and frustration.
Physiological computing systems all contain an element that may be termed as an adaptive controller that may be used to represent the player. This adaptive controller represents the decision-making process underlying software adaptation. In their simplest form, adaptive controllers are expressed in Boolean statements. Adaptive controllers encompass not only the decision-making rules, but also the psychophysiological inference that is implicit in the quantification of those trigger points used to activate the rules. The representation of the player using an adaptive controller can become very complex and often only one-dimensional. The loop used to describe this process is known as the biocybernetic loop. The biocybernetic loop describes the closed loop system that receives psychophysiological data from the player, transforms that data into a computerized response, which then shapes the future psychophysiological response from the player. A positive control loop tends towards instability as player-software loop strives towards a higher standard of desirable performance. The physiological computer game may wish to incorporate both positive and negative loops into the adaptive controller.
A. Weissman, M. Aranovitch, S. Blazer, and E. Z. Zimmer (2009)
Pediatrics 124, e921-e926
L. P.T. Hua, C. A. Brown, S. J.M. Hains, M. Godwin, and J. L. Parlow (2009)
Biol Res Nurs 11, 129-143
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
that is concerned with the physiological
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
bases of psychological
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
processes. While psychophysiology was a general broad field of research in the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become quite specialized, and has branched into subspecializations. For example, Social Psychophysiology, Cardiovascular Psychophysiology, Cognitive Psychophysiology, and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Some people have difficulty distinguishing a psychophysiologist from a physiological psychologist, two very different perspectives. Psychologists are interested in why we may fear spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s and physiologists may be interested in the input/output system of the amygdala
Amygdala
The ' are almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system.-...
. A psychophysiologist will attempt to link the two. Psychophysiologists almost always study the psychological/physiological link in intact human subjects. While early psychophysiologists almost always examined the impact of psychological states on physiological system responses, since the 1970s, psychophysiologists also frequently study the impact of physiological states and systems on psychological states and processes. It is this perspective of studying the interface of mind and body that makes psychophysiologists most distinct.
Historically, most psychophysiologists tended to examine the physiological responses and organ systems innervated by the autonomic nervous system. More recently, psychophysiologists have been equally, or potentially more, interested in the central nervous system, exploring cortical brain potentials such as the many types of event-related potentials (ERPs), brain waves, and utilizing advanced technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), MRI, PET, MEG, and other neuroimagery techniques.
Continuing the comparison between a psychophysiologist and a physiological psychologist, a psychophysiologist may look at how exposure to a stressful situation will produce a result in the cardiovascular system such as a change in heart rate (HR), vasodilation/vasoconstriction, myocardial contractility, or stroke volume. A physiological psychologist may look at how one cardiovascular event may influence another cardiovascular or endocrine event, or how activation of one neural brain structure exerts excitatory activity in another neural structure which then induces an inhibitory effect in some other system. Often, physiological psychologists examine the effects that they study in infrahuman subjects using surgical or invasive techniques and processes.
Psychophysiology is closely related to the field of Neuroscience and Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather...
, which primarily concerns itself with relationships between psychological events and brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
responses. Psychophysiology is also related to the medical discipline known as psychosomatics.
While psychophysiology was a discipline off the mainstream of psychological and medical science prior to roughly the 1960 and 1970s, more recently, psychophysiology has found itself positioned at the intersection of psychological and medical science, and its popularity and importance have expanded commensurately with the realization of the inter-relatedness of mind and body.
Commonly used measures
Many measures are part of modern psychophysiology including measures of brain activity such as ERPs, brain waves (electroencephalography, EEG), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), measures of skin conductance (skin conductance response, SCR; galvanic skin responseGalvanic skin response
Skin conductance, also known as galvanic skin response , electrodermal response , psychogalvanic reflex , skin conductance response or skin conductance level , is a method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which varies with its moisture level...
, GSR), cardiovascular measures (heart rate
Heart rate
Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, typically expressed as beats per minute . Heart rate can vary as the body's need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide changes, such as during exercise or sleep....
, HR; beats per minute, BPM; heart rate variability
Heart rate variability
Heart rate variability is a physiological phenomenon where the time interval between heart beats varies. It is measured by the variation in the beat-to-beat interval....
, HRV; vasomotor activity), muscle activity (electromyography
Electromyography
Electromyography is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle...
, EMG), changes in pupil diameter with thought and emotion (pupillometry) and eye movements, recorded via the electro-oculogram (EOG) and direction-of-gaze methods.
Uses of psychophysiology
Psychophysiological measures are often used to study emotion and attention responses to stimuli, during exertion,and increasingly, to better understand cognitive processes.Physiological sensors have been used to detect emotions in Schools and Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Psychophysiological Inference and Physiological Computer Games
Physiological computing represents a category of affective computingAffective computing
Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer sciences, psychology, and cognitive science...
that incorporates real-time software adaption to the psychophysiological activity of the user. The main goal of this is to build a computer that responds to user emotion, cognition and motivation. The approach is to enable implicit and symmetrical human-computer communication by granting the software access to a representation of the user's psychological status.
There are several possible methods to represent the psychological state of the user (discussed in the affective computing
Affective computing
Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer sciences, psychology, and cognitive science...
page). The advantages of using psychophysiological indices are that their changes are continuous, measures are covert and implicit, and only available data source when the user interacts with the computer without any explicit communication or input device. These systems rely upon an assumption that the psychophysiological measure is an accurate one-to-one representation of a relevant psychological dimension such as mental effort, task engagement and frustration.
Physiological computing systems all contain an element that may be termed as an adaptive controller that may be used to represent the player. This adaptive controller represents the decision-making process underlying software adaptation. In their simplest form, adaptive controllers are expressed in Boolean statements. Adaptive controllers encompass not only the decision-making rules, but also the psychophysiological inference that is implicit in the quantification of those trigger points used to activate the rules. The representation of the player using an adaptive controller can become very complex and often only one-dimensional. The loop used to describe this process is known as the biocybernetic loop. The biocybernetic loop describes the closed loop system that receives psychophysiological data from the player, transforms that data into a computerized response, which then shapes the future psychophysiological response from the player. A positive control loop tends towards instability as player-software loop strives towards a higher standard of desirable performance. The physiological computer game may wish to incorporate both positive and negative loops into the adaptive controller.
Sources
- Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology the North American Society of Pacing Electrophysiology. Heart Rate Variability Standards of Measurement, Physiological Interpretation, and Clinical Use . Circulation. 1996:1043-1065.
- Heel-Lancing in Newborns: Behavioral and Spectral Analysis Assessment of Pain Control Methods.
A. Weissman, M. Aranovitch, S. Blazer, and E. Z. Zimmer (2009)
Pediatrics 124, e921-e926
- Effects of Low-Intensity Exercise Conditioning on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and Autonomic Modulation of Heart Rate in Men and Women with Hypertension.
L. P.T. Hua, C. A. Brown, S. J.M. Hains, M. Godwin, and J. L. Parlow (2009)
Biol Res Nurs 11, 129-143
- Malik M, Camm A. Heart Rate Variability. Futura Publishing Company, 1995.
- Welcome MO, Pereverzeva EV, and Pereverzev VA. A novel psychophysiological model of the effect of alcohol use on academic performance of male medical students of Belarusian State Medical University. IJCRIMPH 2 (6): 183-197, 2010.
External links
- Society for Psychophysiological Research. The primary American professional organization of psychophysiological research.
- British Society for Clinical Psychophysiology (BSCP) Clinical Psychophysiology
- The International Society for the Advancement of Respiratory Psychophysiology (ISARP)
- The Medipsych Institute Clinical Psychophysiology
- Brain, Body and Bytes: Psychophysiological User Interaction CHI 2010 Workshop (10-15, April 2010)
- BioHarness Heart Validation vs gold standard
- http://www.iomcworld.com/ijcrimph/ijcrimph-v02-n06-01.htm