Examining Changes in HRV and Emotion Following Artmaking with Three Different Art Materials

Hi, I'm Dr.Johanna Czamanski-Cohen from the Emily Sagol Creative Arts Therapy Research Center at the University of Haifa. The study we're presenting today is conducted at a table using art materials and a portable wireless and noninvasive ECG recording device. We use a biopatch that adheres below the sternum with two disposable gel electrodes and software that enables the visualization of the data recorded.

For this experiment healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 40 were recruited. For the wider range of ages, a division to subgroups is recommended due to the age related changes in heart rate variability. Participants with a current or a history of heart disease are excluded.

The researcher greets the participant and before obtaining informed consent, confirms that in the two hours before the experiment the participant did not drink coffee, eat, smoke or vigorously exercise. Biopatch is adhered with two fingers below the sternum with two disposable electrodes. ECG is sampled at 1, 000 hertz, 16 bit and recorded with the biopatch.

Later on, heart rate variability is estimated based on continuous electrocardiogram recording at rest and while drawing. The software enables us to visually inspect the data being recorded and detect if there are any problems in signal and recording. In case of a problem, the software will transmit an audio warning.

After adapting to the environment and wearing the biopatch, five minutes of resting heart rate is measured in a sitting position to establish baseline HRV. Following the five minute rest, participants fill out a questionnaire with demographic data, a question about their art-making habits and the self assessment manikin, the SAM. The self assessment manikin visual analog skill is a nine point visual scale for measuring the valence, arousal and dominance of emotional response.

The valence scale ranges from unhappy to sad to happy or joyful. The arousal scale ranges from calm or bored to stimulated or excited. The dominance scale ranges from being submissive or a sense of being without control to dominant or in control.

Each participant is requested to engage in three 10 minute art-making sessions using pencil, oil pastels and gouache paint. To reduce an order effect, the order of the art materials is randomized. In this case, following drawing with pencil, the participants used oil pastels and then gouache paint.

To establish a comparable emotional state, participants listened to five minutes of relaxing music of their choice. Participants received a sheet of paper and are instructed to draw for 10 minutes. Participants are encouraged to use the entire 10 minutes for art-making.

After each art-making session, participants reported their emotional state. And open box of 12 colors of oil pastels is placed on the table and participants are told that they can use them in any way they choose including peeling the wrapper and breaking the pastel if needed. And again, instruct participants to report their emotional state using the SAM.

Turn on the music and again instruct participants to listen to five minutes of relaxing music of their choice. Gouache paint in primary colors yellow red and blue and black and white are presented in a plastic pallette divided into bowls with mixing surfaces in order to control the quantities of paint. We provided some water and a soft flat-headed brush.

The subjects are told that they can request additional paint if needed. The researcher provides a short explanation of mixing colors and cleaning the brushes. And again, instruct participants to report their emotional state using the SAM.

Turn on the music and again instruct participants to listen to five minutes of relaxing music of their choice. Data recorded with the biopatch are downloaded to the computer. The data is converted to a text file that is appropriate for import to the visual analysis software QRSTool, saving only the timestamp and voltage vectors using a MATLAB script.

ECG series are visually inspected for artifacts. The R component of the ECG is identified using the QRSTool software. Each ECG series is visually inspected alongside the identified heartbeats, time points and artifacts which are missed or wrongfully identified heartbeats and corrected manually.

Since ECG artifacts might be quite similar to those R waves, it might result in an RR for example, inter beat intervals miscalculations. Should you identify areas that don't show an identifiable QRS wave, you can also use QRSTool to divide your data into several long enough chunks. We use chunks of 30 seconds at least.Cmd.

exe software is a command line based utility that calculates of time domain and other metrics of HRV given a simple IBI series as an input. We usually use at least two indices of HRV, estimated respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a vagal or parasympathetic index and cardiac sympathetic index based on a Lorenz plot that estimates sympathetic influence. Choosing the appropriate HRV index to represent vagal or sympathetic cardiac regulation can be tricky.

For further information we recommend reading The many metrics of cardiac chronotropy:A pragmatic primer and a brief comparison of metrics by Allen, Chambers and Towers from 2007 published in Biological Psychology. Representative results For 35%of the variability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia was explained by art-making with the smallest change during art-making with pencil and the largest with oil pastels. Furthermore, positive emotional response was greatest when painting with gouache.

However there were not differences in dominance or arousal. Conclusions The protocol does not have to be limited to art-making and can be modified to examine differences in a variety of art materials. Different art materials have a differential effect on emotional response and physiology.

Thank you for watching. We hope this video will help you in replicating our study or planning your further research.