Psychophysiological distinctions in emotional responding: sensitivity to perceiving loss of connection

The study investigated how distinctions in perception might affect emotional responding to a change in an affordance. There is evidence that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians tend to perceive holistically. Due to sensitivity to focal objects, European Americans (EA) were hypothesized to respond negatively with increased HR variance on perceiving loss of connection when playing Cyberball. EA would also feel sadness more intensely, in terms of decreased heart rate and increased RSA, at an earlier time during a sad clip. Chinese Americans (CA) were predicted to show no difference in affect from controls. ECG, fEMG, respiration and self-report data were acquired from 51 subjects (38 EA, 13 CA, 25 male, mean age 21.1) in a between-subjects design. 26 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed and the controls received 10. 88% in the experimental condition reported a negative emotion (e.g. anger). Control subjects reported mainly neutral affect. ANOVA analyses revealed HR variance had an interaction effect (time x condition, p=0.009) and RSA had a main effect (condition, p=0.033). Both experimental groups had increased heart rate variance and increased RSA. Facial coding revealed EA expressed more negative emotion. CA in the experimental condition showed correlation across measures: HR variance, RSA and respiration, suggesting automatic regulation to perceiving loss contained its expression. Most subjects reported feeling sad during the clip. fEMG of the corrugator muscle revealed EA activated higher peak intensity 5.5 seconds earlier than CA (increased 1.571 vs 0.844). EA also had decreased HR and increased RSA, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, earlier. Evidence suggests exposure to loss had stronger effect on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity thereafter.