The Relevance of a Conductor Competition for the Study of Emotional Synchronization Within and Between Groups in a Natural Musical Setting
Group emotional dynamics are a central concern in the study of human interaction and communication. To study group emotions, the social context of a musical event in ecological conditions may overcome several limits of laboratory experiments and could provide a suitable ecological framework. This study aimed to evaluate if cultural events such as a conductor competition could welcome scientific research for the study of group emotional sharing. We led an observational study, which suggests that in this particular context, public, musicians and jury would agree to participate and to wear neurophysiological and physiological devices to monitor their emotional state during the competition. Sel…
Realignment of myocardial first-pass MR perfusion images using an automatic detection of the heart-lung interface
International audience; Abstract: Magnetic resonance first-pass imaging of a bolus of contrast agent is well adapted to distinguish normal and hypoperfused areas of the myocardium. In most cases, the signal intensity-time curves in user defined regions of interest (ROI) are studied. As image acquisition is ECG-gated, the images are acquired at the same moment in the cardiac cycle, and the basic shape of the heart is similar from one view to the next. However, superficial respiratory motion can displace the heart in the short-axis plane. The aim of this study is to correct for the respiratory motion of the heart by performing an automatic realignment of the myocardial ROI based on a method t…
Left ventricular ejection fraction calculation from automatically selected and processed diastolic and systolic frames in short-axis cine-MRI
International audience; Abstract: The calculation of the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is dependent upon the accurate measurement of diastolic and systolic left ventricular volumes. Although breath-hold cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows coverage of the whole cardiac cycle with an excellent time resolution, many authors rely on the visual selection of diastolic and the systolic short-axis slices in order to reduce the postprocessing time. An automatic method was developed to detect the endocardial contour on each image, allowing an automatic selection of the systolic frame. The calculated ejection fraction was compared with radionuclide ventriculography (RNV). Sixty-fi…
Automatic fuzzy classification of the washout curves from magnetic resonance first-pass perfusion imaging after myocardial infarction.
International audience; Abstract: Objectives: We sought to investigate the diagnostic ability of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) perfusion in acute reper-fused myocardial infarction. The study used fuzzy logic to automatically classify signal intensity-time curves from myocardial segments into 3 categories: normal, hypointense, and Hyperintense. Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight patients with myocardial infarction underwent short-axis cine-MRI and contrast-enhanced MRI to provide data on wall thickening and the transmural extent of infarction. Of these, 17 had a second cardiac MRI to ascertain the functional recovery in each segment. Results: The fuzzy logic based classification …
Cortical Patterns of Pleasurable Musical Chills Revealed by High-Density EEG
Music has the capacity to elicit strong positive feelings in humans by activating the brain’s reward system. Because group emotional dynamics is a central concern of social neurosciences, the study of emotion in natural/ecological conditions is gaining interest. This study aimed to show that high-density EEG (HD-EEG) is able to reveal patterns of cerebral activities previously identified by fMRI or PET scans when the subject experiences pleasurable musical chills. We used HD-EEG to record participants (11 female, 7 male) while listening to their favorite pleasurable chill-inducing musical excerpts; they reported their subjective emotional state from low pleasure up to chills. HD-EEG results…
Interbrain emotional connection during music performances is driven by physical proximity and individual traits.
How musical emotions and the pleasure derived from music, regardless of the musical valence, can be shared between individuals is a fascinating question, and investigating it can shed light on the function of musical reward. We carried out our investigations in a natural setting during an international competition for orchestra conductors. Participants (n = 15) used a dedicated smartphone app to report their subjective emotional experiences in real time while we recorded their cerebral activity using electroencephalography and their electrodermal activity. The overall behavioral real-time behavioral ratings suggest a possible social influence on the reported and felt pleasure. The physicall…
An artistic approach to neurofeedback for emotion regulation
AbstractNeurofeedback has been shown to be a promising tool for learning to regulate one’s own emotions in healthy populations and in neuropsychiatric disorders. While it has been suggested that neurofeedback performance improves when sensory feedback is related to the pathology under consideration, it is still difficult to represent in real time a proper feedback representative of our emotional state. Since emotion is a central part of people’s dealings with artworks, we have initiated a collaboration between neuroscientists and artists to develop a visual representation of emotions that can be used in neurofeedback experiences. As a result of this collaboration, emotions were represented …