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After being requested to deliver an unprepared brief presentation and then subtract sequentially in steps of 17 – before a trio of unknown individuals – the acute stress was written on my face.

The reason was that researchers were documenting this quite daunting experience for a scientific study that is analyzing anxiety using thermal cameras.

Stress alters the circulation in the facial area, and researchers have found that the drop in temperature of a subject's face can be used as a measure of stress levels and to track recuperation.

Infrared technology, according to the psychologists leading the investigation could be a "revolutionary development" in anxiety studies.

The Scientific Tension Assessment

The experimental stress test that I participated in is carefully controlled and purposely arranged to be an discomforting experience. I visited the academic institution with minimal awareness what I was facing.

Initially, I was asked to sit, relax and hear background static through a pair of earphones.

Thus far, quite relaxing.

Afterward, the researcher who was running the test brought in a trio of unknown individuals into the space. They each looked at me without speaking as the scientist explained that I now had three minutes to prepare a five minute speech about my "ideal career".

As I felt the warmth build around my neck, the experts documented my face changing colour through their infrared device. My nasal area rapidly cooled in heat – turning blue on the heat map – as I contemplated ways to manage this spontaneous talk.

Research Findings

The scientists have performed this identical tension assessment on multiple participants. In all instances, they observed the nasal area cool down by between three and six degrees.

My facial temperature decreased in warmth by two degrees, as my nervous system pushed blood flow away from my nasal region and to my visual and auditory organs – a physical reaction to enable me to see and detect for hazards.

Nearly all volunteers, like me, returned to normal swiftly; their noses warmed to normal readings within a brief period.

Lead researcher stated that being a journalist and presenter has probably made me "quite habituated to being placed in stressful positions".

"You're familiar with the filming device and conversing with unfamiliar people, so it's probable you're relatively robust to interpersonal pressures," the researcher noted.

"However, even individuals such as yourself, accustomed to being tense circumstances, shows a bodily response alteration, so that suggests this 'nasal dip' is a consistent measure of a shifting anxiety level."

Stress Management Applications

Stress is part of life. But this revelation, the scientists say, could be used to help manage harmful levels of tension.

"The duration it takes someone to recover from this temperature drop could be an objective measure of how effectively a person manages their anxiety," noted the head scientist.

"When they return unusually slowly, might this suggest a warning sign of psychological issues? Is it something that we can tackle?"

As this approach is without physical contact and monitors physiological changes, it could also be useful to track anxiety in infants or in individuals unable to express themselves.

The Mental Arithmetic Challenge

The subsequent challenge in my stress assessment was, personally, more challenging than the first. I was asked to count backwards from 2023 in increments of seventeen. Someone on the panel of unresponsive individuals halted my progress every time I made a mistake and instructed me to recommence.

I confess, I am bad at mental arithmetic.

During the uncomfortable period trying to force my thinking to accomplish mathematical calculations, all I could think was that I wanted to flee the increasingly stuffy room.

In the course of the investigation, only one of the numerous subjects for the tension evaluation did truly seek to exit. The others, like me, finished their assignments – presumably feeling varying degrees of discomfort – and were given a further peaceful interval of ambient sound through earphones at the end.

Primate Study Extensions

Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of the approach is that, since infrared imaging record biological tension reactions that is innate in various monkey types, it can furthermore be utilized in other species.

The scientists are currently developing its implementation within refuges for primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas. They seek to establish how to reduce stress and improve the wellbeing of creatures that may have been removed from distressing situations.

The team has already found that displaying to grown apes recorded material of infant chimps has a soothing influence. When the researchers set up a video screen near the rehabilitated primates' habitat, they noticed the facial regions of creatures that observed the material heat up.

So, in terms of stress, viewing infant primates interacting is the inverse of a surprise job interview or an impromptu mathematical challenge.

Future Applications

Employing infrared imaging in monkey habitats could demonstrate itself as valuable in helping protected primates to adapt and acclimate to a unfamiliar collective and unknown territory.

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