Faculty of Psychology

Background. One promising direction in development of contactless techniques for assessment of the human psychoemotional state (PES) is elucidation of the relationships between psychophysiological indices and electromagnetic radiation in the IR and THz ranges.

Objective. To present a complex approach to assessing PESs based on combining psychological testing and psychophysiological diagnostics with measurements of radiation in the IR-THz range from face areas.

Methods. Stressful psychoemotional states were provoked by physical or cognitive stressors. The PES was monitored by psychological testing and registration of heart rate, photoplethysmogram, galvanic skin response, and respiration rate. The facial images in the IR-THz range were extracted by an IR/V-T0831Cdetector (NEC, Japan).

Results and Discussion. Different PESs are characterized by different specific patterns of psychophysiological parameters. Scores on the anxiety test are highly correlated with scores on the chronic stress questionnaire, but there are no reliable links between the data of psychological tests and the psychophysiological indicators. This discrepancy allows us to assume that for reliable identification of PESs, it is necessary to combine these technologies into one diagnostic complex. We found statistically significant correlations between the intensity of the IR-THz image in the forehead and the galvanic skin response.

Conclusion. For the effective diagnosis and forecast of changes in the PES, it is important to consider both the psychological and physiological data. Despite the relatively low signal-to-noise ratio and low frequency of image recording, it is possible to extract informative THz parameters of the broadband IR-THz signal and associate them with psychophysiological reactions. The improvement of IR-THz detectors and the development of new processing methods will allow wide use of the THz range for remote assessment of human PESs in real time.