title: IAPS includes photographs that elicit low-arousal physiological responses in healthy volunteers.
abstract: This article describes pleasant IAPS pictures that elicit low-arousal rather than the high-arousal physiological responses previously reported in the literature. Thirty-two International Affective Picture System (IAPS) photographs were grouped into 4 sets of 8 photographs: highly pleasant-arousing (sexual content and adventures), highly pleasant-relaxing pictures (landscapes, flowers or babies), neutral on both valence/arousal, and highly unpleasant-arousing ones. These stimuli were shown to 24 healthy Brazilian University students (12 males) who had their physiological responses recorded [corrugator and zygomatic facial electromyography activity, skin conductance, heart rate, and peripheral temperature]. Zygomatic EMG differentiated low-arousal pleasant photographs from high-arousal pleasant stimuli of the same valence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychobiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil. rafa@psicobio.epm.br
authors.forename: Rafaela Larsen
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Flávia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Teixeira-Silva
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pompéia
authors.forename: Orlando Francisco Amodeo
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Bueno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D004576:Electromyography; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010781:Photography; D012016:Reference Values; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*