Effects of joy and sorrow on pulse-graph parameters in healthy female college students based on emotion-evoked experiments

ObjectiveTo explore the effects of joy and sorrow on pulse-graph parameters in healthy subjects and analyze their potential effect to provide preliminary evidence that pulse diagnosis can identify human emotional changes.Design and interventionForty healthy female college students from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine were recruited. The emotion-evoking experiment was conducted to observe the effects of joy and sorrow on pulse-graph parameters, taking neutral emotion as a control. The experiment included the following criteria. (1) Emotions evoked and evaluated: the same subjects watched three emotional videos which were, respectively, neutral, joyful and sorrowful to evoke the corresponding emotions. They completed the “subjective emotion evaluation form” (SEEF) before watching each video (T₀), immediately after watching the video (T₁) and 15 min after watching the video (T₂) to conduct subjective emotion evaluation. Simultaneously, their heart rate, galvanic skin response and heart rate variability were collected with a 16-lead physiological recorder to conduct an objective evaluation of emotional arousal. (2) Collection of pulse-graph parameters: pulse-graph parameters of the subjects at T₀, T₁ and T₂ were collected with a pulse condition analyzer.ResultsWhen watching the joy video, the rapid ejection phase extended significantly, both the left ventricular diastole and the cardiac cycle shortened significantly. When watching the sorrow video, the left ventricular diastole extended significantly, the cardiac cycle showed an upward trend, and heart rate showed a downward trend.ConclusionJoy and sorrow have a certain effect on pulse-graph parameters of the subjects. The mechanisms may be that joy contributes to rapid ejection phase extension and a shortening of the left ventricular diastole and the cardiac cycle, while sorrow extends the left ventricular diastole. According to the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the visceral functions can be mediated through human qi flow. Moderate joy and sorrow can promote, respectively, the smooth qi flow of the heart and the lung. However, excessive or long-term joy and sorrow can lead to disharmonious qi flow of the two viscera. Therefore, maintaining moderate emotions is beneficial to the physiological functions of the viscera. Great emotional fluctuations may damage the visceral functions. Future studies with effects of other emotions on pulse-graph parameters are warranted to determine the reliability of the association of emotions and pulse diagnosis.