The skin as a recipient of environmental influences for the emotional state: The new concept of Emossome
Podium 32
Presented by: Pedro Contreiras Pinto
Introduction: The skin is the first organ that interacts with the environment that surround us. This environment can have the capability to induce or change our emotional state by interacting with the skin receptors and by extension with our brain in a way that modifies our senses and finally led us to become more happy, excited, bored, surprised or even angry. This is the base of the new neurocosmetic products that claim to change these parameters.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of several stimulus to induce changes detected or related with our skin in order to evaluate how the environment can actively become a sensorial modifier.
Materials and Methods: After Informed Written Consent, 65 male and female subjects agreed to be submitted to a sensorial study where they were exposed to several stimulus that cover some of the main characteristics of the sensorial evaluation, namely tactile presentation of specific surfaces (to stimulate tactile receptors), temperature exposure (to stimulate temperature receptors), 3D video immersion in a Virtual Reality headset (to create dynamic situations in a safe environment), exposure to different types of cosmetic emulsions with different rheological properties from completely fluid to high viscosity preparations and several reference fragrances covering the concepts of excitement, neutral, boring and aversive. Skin biometric parameters were obtained before and during the stimulus presentation to detect the influence of the sensorial activity in the skin physiology, namely skin microcirculation (Periflux PF5000, Perimed), Trans Epidermal Water Loss (Tewameter TM300, C+K), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) (Shimmer), Eye tracking evaluation (tobbi TX2 and HTC VIVE pro Eye headset), temperature image (FLIR Ebx30), Color evaluation (Chromameter CR400, Minolta), Heart Rate frequency and variability (Shimmer) and EEG (Actichamp 64 channels headset system).
All the parameters were synchronized with the stimulus presentation with the AFETS platform (an Imotions, Denmark based system) in order to correlate the stimulus with the evaluated parameter. All the parameters were extracted at the times of the stimulus and in case of the eye tracking systems exposure times were also calculated.
The study was submitted to the corresponding Ethical Committee and follow the general submission process to the Portuguese authorities in order to comply with Good Clinical Practices. Statistical analysis and correlation analysis was performed using EXCEL (Microsoft Corp) and SPSS 23 (IBM). Confidence level was established at 95%.
Results:
Results show that during tactile vibration there is decrease in the Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The GSR peak detection significantly increases when the subjects smell the fragrances related with aversive and excited and also increased when an aversive 3D video is visualized in a context of 3D VR stimulation. In both situations TEWL is also increased. Skin microcirculation was obtained and increase during the more extreme stimulus (aversive and excited fragrances, aversive videos and more viscous cosmetic emulsions). A Wavelet detection algorithm show an increase contribution of the sympathetic and local activity on the same stimulus presentation.
Discussion: During vibrational stimulus the HRV is a surrogate for the Autonomic response and probably decreases due to the stress imposed by the stimulus setup (the subjects has the eyes blinded). During the fragrance presentation subjects increase the arousal (detected by the increase of the peak detection of the GSR) in the fragrances more aversive and more excited, which is expected as those are the more intrusive stimulus. Viscous cosmetic emulsions also increase the GSR and EEG activity in the frontal area suggesting an increase in the stimulus recognition.
In summary the extreme stimulus start an increased activity of the autonomic response that is propagated trough several physiological mechanisms until reaches the brain. These mechanisms suggest that the skin act as an anticipative neurodetector and responds to the environment where it is immersed. From these findings we suggest the concept of Emossome, an environment that surrounds the skin, interacts with it, and modulates the sensorial response in a way that can induce neural activity similar to those induced by a cosmetic product.
Conclusion: The Emossome was observed in all the stimulus that can interact with our skin in order to modify the emotional state of the subject, leaving our skin to act as an extension of our brain.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of several stimulus to induce changes detected or related with our skin in order to evaluate how the environment can actively become a sensorial modifier.
Materials and Methods: After Informed Written Consent, 65 male and female subjects agreed to be submitted to a sensorial study where they were exposed to several stimulus that cover some of the main characteristics of the sensorial evaluation, namely tactile presentation of specific surfaces (to stimulate tactile receptors), temperature exposure (to stimulate temperature receptors), 3D video immersion in a Virtual Reality headset (to create dynamic situations in a safe environment), exposure to different types of cosmetic emulsions with different rheological properties from completely fluid to high viscosity preparations and several reference fragrances covering the concepts of excitement, neutral, boring and aversive. Skin biometric parameters were obtained before and during the stimulus presentation to detect the influence of the sensorial activity in the skin physiology, namely skin microcirculation (Periflux PF5000, Perimed), Trans Epidermal Water Loss (Tewameter TM300, C+K), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) (Shimmer), Eye tracking evaluation (tobbi TX2 and HTC VIVE pro Eye headset), temperature image (FLIR Ebx30), Color evaluation (Chromameter CR400, Minolta), Heart Rate frequency and variability (Shimmer) and EEG (Actichamp 64 channels headset system).
All the parameters were synchronized with the stimulus presentation with the AFETS platform (an Imotions, Denmark based system) in order to correlate the stimulus with the evaluated parameter. All the parameters were extracted at the times of the stimulus and in case of the eye tracking systems exposure times were also calculated.
The study was submitted to the corresponding Ethical Committee and follow the general submission process to the Portuguese authorities in order to comply with Good Clinical Practices. Statistical analysis and correlation analysis was performed using EXCEL (Microsoft Corp) and SPSS 23 (IBM). Confidence level was established at 95%.
Results:
Results show that during tactile vibration there is decrease in the Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The GSR peak detection significantly increases when the subjects smell the fragrances related with aversive and excited and also increased when an aversive 3D video is visualized in a context of 3D VR stimulation. In both situations TEWL is also increased. Skin microcirculation was obtained and increase during the more extreme stimulus (aversive and excited fragrances, aversive videos and more viscous cosmetic emulsions). A Wavelet detection algorithm show an increase contribution of the sympathetic and local activity on the same stimulus presentation.
Discussion: During vibrational stimulus the HRV is a surrogate for the Autonomic response and probably decreases due to the stress imposed by the stimulus setup (the subjects has the eyes blinded). During the fragrance presentation subjects increase the arousal (detected by the increase of the peak detection of the GSR) in the fragrances more aversive and more excited, which is expected as those are the more intrusive stimulus. Viscous cosmetic emulsions also increase the GSR and EEG activity in the frontal area suggesting an increase in the stimulus recognition.
In summary the extreme stimulus start an increased activity of the autonomic response that is propagated trough several physiological mechanisms until reaches the brain. These mechanisms suggest that the skin act as an anticipative neurodetector and responds to the environment where it is immersed. From these findings we suggest the concept of Emossome, an environment that surrounds the skin, interacts with it, and modulates the sensorial response in a way that can induce neural activity similar to those induced by a cosmetic product.
Conclusion: The Emossome was observed in all the stimulus that can interact with our skin in order to modify the emotional state of the subject, leaving our skin to act as an extension of our brain.