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Introduction: Understanding how food neophobia affects food experience may help to shift toward sustainable diets. Previous research suggests that individuals with higher food neophobia are more aroused and attentive when observing food-related stimuli. The present study examined whether electrodermal activity (EDA), as index of arousal, relates to food neophobia outside the lab when exposed to a single piece of food., Methods: The EDA of 153 participants was analyzed as part of a larger experiment conducted at a festival. Participants completed the 10-item Food Neophobia Scale. Subsequently, they saw three lids covering three foods: a hotdog labeled as "meat", a hotdog labeled as "100% plant-based", and tofu labeled as "100% plant-based". Participants lifted the lids consecutively and the area-under-the-curve (AUC) of the skin conductance response (SCR) was captured between 20 s before and 20 s after each food reveal., Results: We found a significant positive correlation between food neophobia and AUC of SCR during presentation of the first and second hotdog and a trend for tofu. These correlations remained significant even when only including the SCR data prior to the food reveal (i.e., an anticipatory response)., Discussion: The association between food neophobia and EDA indicates that food neophobic individuals are more aroused upon the presentation of food. We show for the first time that the anticipation of being presented with food already increased arousal for food neophobic individuals. These findings also indicate that EDA can be meaningfully determined using wearables outside the lab, in a relatively uncontrolled setting for single-trial analysis., Competing Interests: EZ is employee of Unilever Foods Innovation Center Wageningen, Netherlands, a company which markets food products. HH is employed by Kikkoman Europe R&D Laboratory B.V., Netherlands, a company that markets soy sauce, soy sauce-based seasonings and wholesale of oriental foods. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Stuldreher, Van der Burg, Velut, Toet, van Os, Hiraguchi, Hogervorst, Zandstra, Van Erp and Brouwer.)

Reflecting the two main prevailing and opposing views on the nature of emotions, emotional responses to food and beverages are typically measured using either (a) a categorical (lexicon-based) approach where users select or rate the terms that best express their food-related feelings or (b) a dimensional approach where they rate perceived food items along the dimensions of valence and arousal. Relating these two approaches is problematic since a response in terms of valence and arousal is not easily expressed in terms of emotions (like happy or disgusted). In this study, we linked the dimensional approach to a categorical approach by establishing mapping between a set of 25 emotion terms (EsSense25) and the valence-arousal space (via the EmojiGrid graphical response tool), using a set of 20 food images. In two 'matching' tasks, the participants first imagined how the food shown in a given image would make them feel and then reported either the emotional terms or the combination of valence and arousal that best described their feelings. In two labeling tasks, the participants first imagined experiencing a given emotion term and then they selected either the foods (images) that appeared capable to elicit that feeling or reported the combination of valence and arousal that best reflected that feeling. By combining (1) the mapping between the emotion terms and the food images with (2) the mapping of the food images to the valence-arousal space, we established (3) an indirect (via the images) mapping of the emotion terms to the valence-arousal space. The results show that the mapping between terms and images was reliable and that the linkages have straightforward and meaningful interpretations. The valence and arousal values that were assigned to the emotion terms through indirect mapping to the valence-arousal space were typically less extreme than those that were assigned through direct mapping.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research on mediated communication via social touch. Previous studies indicated that mediated social touch (MST) can induce similar positive outcomes to interpersonal touch. However, studies investigating the user experience of MST technology predominantly involve brief experiments that are performed in well-controlled laboratory conditions. Hence, it is still unknown how MST affects the relationship and communication between physically separated partners in a romantic relationship, in a naturalistic setting and over a longer period of time. In a longitudinal explorative field study, the effects of MST on social connectedness and longing for touch among geographically separated romantic couples were investigated in a naturalistic setting. For 2 weeks, 17 couples used haptic bracelets, that were connected via the internet, to exchange mediated squeeze-like touch signals. Before and after this period, they reported their feelings of social connectedness and longing for touch through questionnaires. The results show that the use of haptic bracelets (1) enhanced social connectedness among geographically separated couples but (2) did not affect their longing for touch. Interviews conducted at the end of the study were analyzed following the thematic analysis method to generate prominent themes and patterns in using MST technology among participant couples. Two main themes were generated that captured (a) the way the bracelets fostered a positive one-to-one connection between partners and (b) the way in which participants worked around their frustrations with the bracelets. Detailed findings and limitations of this longitudinal field study are further discussed, and suggestions are made for future research., Competing Interests: Between January 2017 and April 2020 GH worked on the development of Hey Bracelet. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 van Hattum, Huisman, Toet and van Erp.)

How we perceive the world is not solely determined by what we sense at a given moment in time, but also by what we processed recently. Here we investigated whether such serial dependencies for emotional stimuli transfer from one modality to another. Participants were presented a random sequence of emotional sounds and images and instructed to rate the valence and arousal of each stimulus (Experiment 1). For both ratings, we conducted an intertrial analysis, based on whether the rating on the previous trial was low or high. We found a positive serial dependence for valence and arousal regardless of the stimulus modality on two consecutive trials. In Experiment 2, we examined whether passively perceiving a stimulus is sufficient to induce a serial dependence. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to rate the stimuli only on active trials and not on passive trials. The participants were informed that the active and passive trials were presented in alternating order, so that they were able to prepare for the task. We conducted an intertrial analysis on active trials, based on whether the rating on the previous passive trial (determined in Experiment 1) was low or high. For both ratings, we again observed positive serial dependencies regardless of the stimulus modality. We conclude that the emotional experience triggered by one stimulus affects the emotional experience for a subsequent stimulus regardless of their sensory modalities, that this occurs in a bottom-up fashion, and that this can be explained by residual activation in the emotional network in the brain.

The present study investigated the potential of implicit physiological measures to provide objective measures of affective food experience in contrast to explicit self-report ratings in a cross-cultural context. Dutch and Thai participants viewed 120 food images portraying universal food image categories (regular and molded food) and cultural food image categories (typically Dutch and Thai food). The universal food images were taken as ground truth high and low valence stimuli, where we assumed no genuine difference in affective experience between nationalities. In contrast, for the cultural food images, we did expect a genuine difference between nationalities. Participants were asked to rate valence, arousal and liking of each food image. In addition, heart rate (HR) and phasic electrodermal activity (EDA) responses to the images were recorded. Typically Asian and Western response biases were found for explicit ratings of regular and molded food with an extreme response style for Dutch, and a middle response style for Thai participants. However, such bias was not observed in HR. For cultural food image categories, HR showed the hypothesized interaction between participant nationality and food image category, reflecting the expected genuine difference between nationalities in affective food experience. Besides presenting participants with images, we also asked participants to taste typically Thai and Dutch drinks. Similar to images, a significant interaction between participant nationality and cultural food category was found for HR. An interaction was also found for sip size, while this was not seen in explicit measures. We attribute this to differences in the moment that these measures were taken. In this study, phasic EDA did not appear to be a sensitive measure of affective food experience, possibly since stimuli mostly differed in valence rather than arousal. To conclude, our study constitutes an example where cultural bias negatively affected the accuracy of self-reports, and only the implicit physiological measures followed the prior expectations of genuine food experience, indicating the potential of these measures to study cross-cultural food experience., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Kaneko, Stuldreher, Reuten, Toet, van Erp and Brouwer.)

Emotional state during food consumption is expected to affect food pleasantness. We hypothesize that a negative emotional state reduces food pleasantness and more so for novel foods than for familiar foods because novel foods have not yet been associated with previous emotions. Furthermore, we expect this effect to be stronger when judging the food again from memory without tasting. We induced a positive emotional state in 34 participants by telling them that they earned a monetary bonus and induced a negative emotional state in 35 other participants by subjecting them to a social stress test. After this emotion induction, both groups tasted and rated a (for them) novel soup (sumashi soup) and a familiar soup (vegetable soup). Several explicit and implicit measures of food pleasantness (rated valence, EsSense25, willingness-to-take-home and sip size) indicated that while the negative emotion group did not experience the soups as less pleasant than the positive emotion group, there was an interaction between food familiarity and emotional group. The positive emotion group experienced novel and familiar soups as equally pleasant, whereas the negative emotion group experienced the novel soup as relatively unpleasant and the familiar soup as pleasant. The latter result is consistent with a comforting effect of a familiar taste in a stressful situation. This effect remained in the ratings given 1 week later based on memory and even after retasting. Our results show that emotional state affects food pleasantness differently for novel and familiar foods and that such an effect can be robust., (Copyright © 2020 Kaneko, Brouwer, Hogervorst, Toet, Kallen and van Erp.)

In this study we evaluate the convergent validity of a new graphical self-report tool (the EmojiGrid) for the affective appraisal of perceived touch events. The EmojiGrid is a square grid labeled with facial icons (emoji) showing different levels of valence and arousal. The EmojiGrid is language independent and efficient (a single click suffices to report both valence and arousal), making it a practical instrument for studies on affective appraisal. We previously showed that participants can intuitively and reliably report their affective appraisal (valence and arousal) of visual, auditory and olfactory stimuli using the EmojiGrid, even without additional (verbal) instructions. However, because touch events can be bidirectional and dynamic, these previous results cannot be generalized to the touch domain. In this study, participants reported their affective appraisal of video clips showing different interpersonal (social) and object-based touch events, using either the validated 9-point SAM (Self-Assessment Mannikin) scale or the EmojiGrid. The valence ratings obtained with the EmojiGrid and the SAM are in excellent agreement. The arousal ratings show good agreement for object-based touch and moderate agreement for social touch. For social touch and at more extreme levels of valence, the EmojiGrid appears more sensitive to arousal than the SAM. We conclude that the EmojiGrid can also serve as a valid and efficient graphical self-report instrument to measure human affective response to a wide range of tactile signals., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: In this study we measured the affective appraisal of sounds and video clips using a newly developed graphical self-report tool: the EmojiGrid. The EmojiGrid is a square grid, labeled with emoji that express different degrees of valence and arousal. Users rate the valence and arousal of a given stimulus by simply clicking on the grid. Methods: In Experiment I, observers (N=150, 74 males, mean age=25.2±3.5) used the EmojiGrid to rate their affective appraisal of 77 validated sound clips from nine different semantic categories, covering a large area of the affective space. In Experiment II, observers (N=60, 32 males, mean age=24.5±3.3) used the EmojiGrid to rate their affective appraisal of 50 validated film fragments varying in positive and negative affect (20 positive, 20 negative, 10 neutral). Results: The results of this study show that for both sound and video, the agreement between the mean ratings obtained with the EmojiGrid and those obtained with an alternative and validated affective rating tool in previous studies in the literature, is excellent for valence and good for arousal. Our results also show the typical universal U-shaped relation between mean valence and arousal that is commonly observed for affective sensory stimuli, both for sound and video. Conclusions: We conclude that the EmojiGrid can be used as an affective self-report tool for the assessment of sound and video-evoked emotions., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2021 Toet A and van Erp JBF.)

The affective appraisal of odors is known to depend on their intensity (I), familiarity (F), detection threshold (T), and on the baseline affective state of the observer. However, the exact nature of these relations is still largely unknown. We therefore performed an observer experiment in which participants (N = 52) smelled 40 different odors (varying widely in hedonic valence) and reported the intensity, familiarity and their affective appraisal (valence and arousal: V and A) for each odor. Also, we measured the baseline affective state (valence and arousal: BV and BA) and odor detection threshold of the participants. Analyzing the results for pleasant and unpleasant odors separately, we obtained two models through network analysis. Several relations that have previously been reported in the literature also emerge in both models (the relations between F and I, F and V, I and A; I and V, BV and T). However, there are also relations that do not emerge (between BA and V, BV and I, and T and I) or that appear with a different polarity (the relation between F and A for pleasant odors). Intensity (I) has the largest impact on the affective appraisal of unpleasant odors, while F significantly contributes to the appraisal of pleasant odors. T is only affected by BV and has no effect on other variables. This study is a first step towards an integral study of the affective appraisal of odors through network analysis. Future studies should also include other factors that are known to influence odor appraisal, such as age, gender, personality, and culture., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Telerobotics aims to transfer human manipulation skills and dexterity over an arbitrary distance and at an arbitrary scale to a remote workplace. A telerobotic system that is transparent enables a natural and intuitive interaction. We postulate that embodiment (with three sub-components: sense of ownership, agency, and self-location) of the robotic system leads to optimal perceptual transparency and increases task performance. However, this has not yet been investigated directly. We reason along four premises and present findings from the literature that substantiate each of them: (1) the brain can embody non-bodily objects (e.g., robotic hands), (2) embodiment can be elicited with mediated sensorimotor interaction, (3) embodiment is robust against inconsistencies between the robotic system and the operator's body, and (4) embodiment positively correlates to dexterous task performance. We use the predictive encoding theory as a framework to interpret and discuss the results reported in the literature. Numerous previous studies have shown that it is possible to induce embodiment over a wide range of virtual and real extracorporeal objects (including artificial limbs, avatars, and android robots) through mediated sensorimotor interaction. Also, embodiment can occur for non-human morphologies including for elongated arms and a tail. In accordance with the predictive encoding theory, none of the sensory modalities is critical in establishing ownership, and discrepancies in multisensory signals do not necessarily lead to loss of embodiment. However, large discrepancies in terms of multisensory synchrony or visual likeness can prohibit embodiment from occurring. The literature provides less extensive support for the link between embodiment and (dexterous) task performance. However, data gathered with prosthetic hands do indicate a positive correlation. We conclude that all four premises are supported by direct or indirect evidence in the literature, suggesting that embodiment of a remote manipulator may improve dexterous performance in telerobotics. This warrants further implementation testing of embodiment in telerobotics. We formulate a first set of guidelines to apply embodiment in telerobotics and identify some important research topics., (Copyright © 2020 Toet, Kuling, Krom and van Erp.)

We present CROCUFID: a CROss-CUltural Food Image Database that currently contains 840 images, including 479 food images with detailed metadata and 165 images of non-food items. The database includes images of sweet, savory, natural, and processed food from Western and Asian cuisines. To create sufficient variability in valence and arousal we included images of food with different degrees of appetitiveness (fresh, unfamiliar, molded or rotten, spoiled, and partly consumed). We used a standardized photographing protocol, resulting in high resolution images depicting all food items on a standard background (a white plate), seen from a fixed viewing (45°) angle. CROCUFID is freely available under the CC-By Attribution 4.0 International license and hosted on the OSF repository. The advantages of the CROCUFID database over other databases are its (1) free availability, (2) full coverage of the valence - arousal space, (3) use of standardized recording methods, (4) inclusion of multiple cuisines and unfamiliar foods, (5) availability of normative and demographic data, (6) high image quality and (7) capability to support future (e.g., virtual and augmented reality) applications. Individuals from the United Kingdom ( N = 266), North-America ( N = 275), and Japan ( N = 264) provided normative ratings of valence, arousal, perceived healthiness, and desire-to-eat using visual analog scales (VAS). In addition, for each image we computed 17 characteristics that are known to influence affective observer responses (e.g., texture, regularity, complexity, and colorfulness). Significant differences between groups and significant correlations between image characteristics and normative ratings were in accordance with previous research, indicating the validity of CROCUFID. We expect that CROCUFID will facilitate comparability across studies and advance experimental research on the determinants of food-elicited emotions. We plan to extend CROCUFID in the future with images of food from a wide range of different cuisines and with non-food images (for applications in for instance neuro-physiological studies). We invite researchers from all parts of the world to contribute to this effort by creating similar image sets that can be linked to this collection, so that CROCUFID will grow into a truly multicultural food database.

Because of the globalization of world food markets there is a growing need for valid and language independent self-assessment tools to measure food-related emotions. We recently introduced the EmojiGrid as a language-independent, graphical affective self-report tool. The EmojiGrid is a Cartesian grid that is labeled with facial icons (emoji) expressing different degrees of valence and arousal. Users can report their subjective ratings of valence and arousal by marking the location on the area of the grid that corresponds to the emoji that best represent their affective state when perceiving a given food or beverage. In a previous study we found that the EmojiGrid is robust, self-explaining and intuitive: valence and arousal ratings were independent of framing and verbal instructions. This suggests that the EmojiGrid may be a valuable tool for cross-cultural studies. To test this hypothesis, we performed an online experiment in which respondents from Germany (GE), Japan (JP), the Netherlands (NL) and the United Kingdom (UK) rated valence and arousal for 60 different food images (covering a large part of the affective space) using the EmojiGrid. The results show that the nomothetic relation between valence and arousal has the well-known U-shape for all groups. The European groups (GE, NL and UK) closely agree in their overall rating behavior. Compared to the European groups, the Japanese group systematically gave lower mean arousal ratings to low valenced images and lower mean valence ratings to high valenced images. These results agree with known cultural response characteristics. We conclude that the EmojiGrid is potentially a valid and language-independent affective self-report tool for cross-cultural research on food-related emotions. It reliably reproduces the familiar nomothetic U-shaped relation between valence and arousal across cultures, with shape variations reflecting established cultural characteristics., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Research on food experience is typically challenged by the way questions are worded. We therefore developed the EmojiGrid: a graphical (language-independent) intuitive self-report tool to measure food-related valence and arousal. In a first experiment participants rated the valence and the arousing quality of 60 food images, using either the EmojiGrid or two independent visual analog scales (VAS). The valence ratings obtained with both tools strongly agree. However, the arousal ratings only agree for pleasant food items, but not for unpleasant ones. Furthermore, the results obtained with the EmojiGrid show the typical universal U-shaped relation between the mean valence and arousal that is commonly observed for a wide range of (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory) affective stimuli, while the VAS tool yields a positive linear association between valence and arousal. We hypothesized that this disagreement reflects a lack of proper understanding of the arousal concept in the VAS condition. In a second experiment we attempted to clarify the arousal concept by asking participants to rate the valence and intensity of the taste associated with the perceived food items. After this adjustment the VAS and EmojiGrid yielded similar valence and arousal ratings (both showing the universal U-shaped relation between the valence and arousal). A comparison with the results from the first experiment showed that VAS arousal ratings strongly depended on the actual wording used, while EmojiGrid ratings were not affected by the framing of the associated question. This suggests that the EmojiGrid is largely self-explaining and intuitive. To test this hypothesis, we performed a third experiment in which participants rated food images using the EmojiGrid without an associated question, and we compared the results to those of the first two experiments. The EmojiGrid ratings obtained in all three experiments closely agree. We conclude that the EmojiGrid appears to be a valid and intuitive affective self-report tool that does not rely on written instructions and that can efficiently be used to measure food-related emotions.

Human decision-making shows systematic simplifications and deviations from the tenets of rationality ('heuristics') that may lead to suboptimal decisional outcomes ('cognitive biases'). There are currently three prevailing theoretical perspectives on the origin of heuristics and cognitive biases: a cognitive-psychological, an ecological and an evolutionary perspective. However, these perspectives are mainly descriptive and none of them provides an overall explanatory framework for the underlying mechanisms of cognitive biases. To enhance our understanding of cognitive heuristics and biases we propose a neural network framework for cognitive biases, which explains why our brain systematically tends to default to heuristic ('Type 1') decision making. We argue that many cognitive biases arise from intrinsic brain mechanisms that are fundamental for the working of biological neural networks. To substantiate our viewpoint, we discern and explain four basic neural network principles: (1) Association, (2) Compatibility, (3) Retainment, and (4) Focus. These principles are inherent to (all) neural networks which were originally optimized to perform concrete biological, perceptual, and motor functions. They form the basis for our inclinations to associate and combine (unrelated) information, to prioritize information that is compatible with our present state (such as knowledge, opinions, and expectations), to retain given information that sometimes could better be ignored, and to focus on dominant information while ignoring relevant information that is not directly activated. The supposed mechanisms are complementary and not mutually exclusive. For different cognitive biases they may all contribute in varying degrees to distortion of information. The present viewpoint not only complements the earlier three viewpoints, but also provides a unifying and binding framework for many cognitive bias phenomena.

Besides sensory characteristics of food, food-evoked emotion is a crucial factor in predicting consumer's food preference and therefore in developing new products. Many measures have been developed to assess food-evoked emotions. The aim of this literature review is (i) to give an exhaustive overview of measures used in current research and (ii) to categorize these methods along measurement level (physiological, behavioral, and cognitive) and emotional processing level (unconscious sensory, perceptual/early cognitive, and conscious/decision making) level. This 3 × 3 categorization may help researchers to compile a set of complementary measures ("toolbox") for their studies. We included 101 peer-reviewed articles that evaluate consumer's emotions and were published between 1997 and 2016, providing us with 59 different measures. More than 60% of these measures are based on self-reported, subjective ratings and questionnaires (cognitive measurement level) and assess the conscious/decision-making level of emotional processing. This multitude of measures and their overrepresentation in a single category hinders the comparison of results across studies and building a complete multi-faceted picture of food-evoked emotions. We recommend (1) to use widely applied, validated measures only, (2) to refrain from using (highly correlated) measures from the same category but use measures from different categories instead, preferably covering all three emotional processing levels, and (3) to acquire and share simultaneously collected physiological, behavioral, and cognitive datasets to improve the predictive power of food choice and other models.

Despite of the ongoing interest in the fusion of multi-band images for surveillance applications and a steady stream of publications in this area, there is only a very small number of static registered multi-band test images (and a total lack of dynamic image sequences) publicly available for the development and evaluation of image fusion algorithms. To fill this gap, the TNO Multiband Image Collection provides intensified visual (390-700 nm), near-infrared (700-1000 nm), and longwave infrared (8-12 µm) nighttime imagery of different military and surveillance scenarios, showing different objects and targets (e.g., people, vehicles) in a range of different (e.g., rural, urban) backgrounds. The dataset will be useful for the development of static and dynamic image fusion algorithms, color fusion algorithms, multispectral target detection and recognition algorithms, and dim target detection algorithms.