The uncanny valley (UCV) hypothesis describes a non-linear relationship between perceived human-likeness and affective response. The "uncanny valley" refers to an intermediate level of human-likeness that is associated with strong negative affect. Recent studies have suggested that the uncanny valley might result from the categorical perception of human-like stimuli during identification. When ...

The amygdala is a structure of the temporal lobe thought to be involved in assigning emotional significance to environmental information and triggering adapted physiological, behavioral and affective responses. A large body of literature in animals and human implicates the amygdala in fear. Pain having a strong affective and emotional dimension, the amygdala, especially its central nucleus (CeA...

An interesting class of intelligent tutoring systems are systems that are able to detect and recognize affective responses and states in students, and use such data to adapt its feedback, guidance and instruction. The article presents affective responses and states considered relevant for learning, and methods that have been proposed or used to detect such responses and states. We focus on the ...

Functional neuroimaging of affective systems often includes subjective self-report of the affective response. Although self-report provides valuable information regarding participants' affective responses, prior studies have raised the concern that the attentional demands of reporting on affective experience may obscure neural activations reflecting more natural affective responses. In the pres...

It is well established that physical inactivity may increase the risk for the development of chronic diseases [1]. Also, physical inactivity is related to high costs with public health [2] therefore, regular exercise seems to be critical for individual and public health. In this context, it has been hypothesized that the affective response (pleasure and displeasure) may be a determinant of beha...

Advance preparation of action courses toward emotional stimuli is an effective means to regulate impulsive emotional behavior. Our experiment shows that performing intentional acts of approach and avoidance in an evaluation task influences the unintended activation of approach and avoidance tendencies in another task in which stimulus valence is irrelevant. For the evaluation-relevant blocks, p...

The dual-mode theory proposes that affective responses to exercise are governed by the interplay of factors influenced by the metabolic demands of exercise intensity. This paper highlights methods and mechanisms that are central to the theory and presents evidence to demonstrate the shift in affective responses, from pleasure to displeasure, as the intensity of exercise increases and causes dis...

Researchers assert that affective responses to seemingly minor daily events have long-term implications for mental health, yet this phenomenon has rarely been investigated. In the current study, we examined how levels of daily negative affect and affective reactivity in response to daily stressors predicted general affective distress and self-reported anxiety and depressive disorders 10 years a...

The facial expression of pain plays a crucial role in pain communication and pain diagnostics. Despite its importance, it has remained unknown which dimensions of pain (sensory and/or affective) are encoded in the face. To answer this question, we used a well-established cognitive strategy (suggestions) to differentially modulate the sensory and affective dimensions of pain and investigate the ...