Head Movements in Context of Speech during Stress Induction

This paper focuses on the analysis of head movements in the context of speech during stress and neutral conditions. An experimental protocol was followed including tasks of neutral and stressful emotional states induced by different types of stressors. Translational and rotational head movements and velocities were computationally estimated from 2-dimensional facial landmarks in order to assess stress states. In parallel, the effect of speech production on head motility was investigated. The results indicate that stress conditions increase head motility, in both translational or rotational movement features. Besides, there is a clear involvement of speech in the increase of head motility. However, the intensity of head motility can be attributed to the combined effect of stress or arousal and speech and not just the effect of speech production.