Analyzing autonomic nervous system and emotions with high-resolution data on ECG, facial expressions, and respiration

In the domain of emotional assessment, the predominant focus of numerous studies lies in elucidating the correlation between physiological indicators derived from electrocardiograms and facial expressions. However, there remains a scarcity of studies analyzing the correlation between autonomic nervous system indicators computed from electrocardiograms and emotions with high temporal resolution. In this study, we concurrently measured participants' facial images, capacitive electrocardiogram (cECG), and respiratory data. The cECG and respiratory data were sampled at 250 samples per second (sps), while facial images were captured at 5 frames per second (fps). By focus on respiration, our objective is to achieve a more nuanced understanding of the impact of emotions on the autonomic nervous system and the temporal sequence of responses. We devised a system to visually represent how elicited emotions are manifested in facial expressions, cECG, and respiratory data, with the aim of elucidating the intricate relationship among the autonomic nervous system, emotions, and breathing.