Quantification of anticipation of excitement with three-axial model of emotion with EEG

Abstract

ObjectivesMultiple facets of human emotions underlie diverse and sparse neural mechanisms. Amongst many models of emotions, the circumplex model of emotion is one of a significant theory. The use of the circumplex model allows us to model variable aspects of emotion; however, such momentary expression of ones internal mental state still lacks to consider another, the third dimension of time. Here, we report an exploratory attempt to build a three-axial model of human emotion to model our sense of anticipatory excitement, "Waku-Waku (in Japanese)," when people are predictively coding upcoming emotional events. ApproachElectroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 28 young adult participants while they mentalized upcoming emotional pictures. Three auditory tones were used as indicative cues, predicting the likelihood of valence of an upcoming picture, either positive, negative, or unknown. While seeing an image, participants judged its emotional valence during the task, and subsequently rated their subjective experiences on valence, arousal, expectation, and Waku-Waku immediately after the experiment. The collected EEG data were then analyzed to identify contributory neural signatures for each of the three axes. Main ResultsA three axial model was built to quantify Waku-Waku. As was expected, this model revealed considerable contribution of the third dimension over the classical two-dimension model. Distinctive EEG components were identified. Furthermore, a novel brain-emotion interface is proposed and validated within the scope of limitations. SignificanceThe proposed notion may shed new light on the theories of emotion and supports multiplex dimensions of emotion. With an introduction of the cognitive domain for a brain-computer-interface, we propose a novel brain-emotion-interface. Limitations and potential applications are discussed.