Noninvasive Measurement for Emotional Arousal during Acupuncture using Thermal Image

Acupuncture has been utilized as effective treatment for mental health recently. But knowledge about constant emotional arousal during acupuncture is still unknown. This study aims to propose a noninvasive approach to measuring emotional arousal during acupuncture. Four subjects volunteered in this study, every subject performed experiment three times for 50 min, including 30 min with acupuncture and 10 min without it before and after acupuncture. Subject's constant emotional arousal was measured from the nasal temperature through infrared thermometer, and cross checked with heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. According to the results, nasal temperature decreased when acupuncture began and HRV analysis showed subjects underwent emotional arousal after acupuncture was performed. It was concluded that emotion aroused could be detected through nasal temperature during acupuncture.