Clock'N' Test: Development and Validation of a Test to Evaluate Emotional Disorders

This study concerns the validation of a clinical test that aims to reveal "first level" emotional disorders in neurological diseases.

In order to bring to light such disorders, it is necessary to begin by establishing reference values in healthy individuals. This test is based on the priming effect and time estimations. The test procedure has two successive phases. The first phase aims to determine the judgement of time inherent to each participant and then to assess whether or not this judgement varies during the second phase with the introduction of emotional priming. First, we set out to look for and to calibrate video stimuli able to activate emotions. To this end, we used a battery of 70 sequences developed recently by Schaefer, Nils, Sanchez and Philippot. We determined their degree of physiological activation by measuring the electrodermal response at the laboratory for the exploration of the nervous system in Dijon. These measurements also allowed us to define and refine our paradigm, notably by deciding at what moment the time estimation task should be done and by eliminating the influence of attention. We decided to select only seven video sequences because we noticed a reduction in the measurement effect on time estimations due to habituation of the subject. We also conducted pre-tests in a control population made up of twenty men and women aged from 20 to 60 years.

This brought to light a warp in time estimation opposite to that we found using olfactory stimuli. This first finding suggests that there are two types of emotion, one which is anticipative and the other immediately experienced.