Effect of sound in a horror movie clip on the physiology of the ANS and the conduction pathway of the heart

Abstract

The current study investigates the effect of sound in a horror movie clip on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the conduction pathway of the heart. The effect on ANS was explored non-invasively using heart rate variability (HRV) parameters. The results suggested that the physiology of ANS is not significantly affected by the sound stimulus. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal divulges information about the cardiac electrophysiology. The time-domain and joint time-frequency domain processed ECG signals were classified using artificial neural networks (ANN). The classification results suggested the functional changes in the conduction pathway of the heart.