When I was asked to give a five-minute impromptu speech and then count backwards in 17-minute intervals, all in front of a panel of 3 strangers, acute stress showed on my face.
This is because a team of psychologists from the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, were filming this somewhat terrifying experience for a research project studying stress using thermal cameras.
Stress alters blood flow to the face, and scientists have discovered that The decrease in the temperature of a person’s nose can be used as a measure of stress levels and to monitor recovery.
According to the psychologists responsible for the study, thermal imaging could represent a “turning point” in stress research.
The experimental stress test I underwent is carefully controlled and deliberately designed to be an unpleasant surprise. I arrived at university with no idea what to expect.
First, they asked me to sit down, relax, and listen to white noise through headphones.
Until then, everything was very relaxed.
Next, the researcher conducting the test invited a panel of three strangers into the room. Everyone looked at me in silence as the researcher informed me that I had three minutes to prepare a five-minute speech about my “dream job.”
As I felt the colors rise to my face, the scientists captured the color change of my face through their thermal camera.
The temperature of my nose dropped rapidly, turning blue in the thermal image, as I thought about how to get through this impromptu presentation successfully. (I decided to take the opportunity to apply for the astronaut training program!)
Sussex researchers have carried out this same stress test on 29 volunteers. In all of them, they observed that the temperature of their nose dropped between 3 and 6°.
My nose temperature dropped 2° as my nervous system diverted blood flow from my nose to my eyes and ears, a physical reaction that helped me look and listen for danger.
Most participants, like me, recovered quickly; the temperature of their noses returned to pre-stress levels within minutes.
Lead researcher Professor Gillian Forrester explained that being a reporter and broadcaster has probably made me “quite accustomed to being in stressful situations”.
“You’re used to cameras and talking to strangers, so you’re probably pretty resilient to social stressors,” she explained.
“But even someone like you, trained to be in stressful situations, shows a biological change in blood flow, suggesting that this ‘nasal droop’ is a strong indicator of a changing stress state.”
The applications of the study
Stress is part of life. But this discovery, according to scientists, could be used to help control unhealthy levels of stress.
“The time it takes a person to recover from this nasal droop could be an objective measure of their ability to regulate stress,” says Forrester.
“If they recover unusually slowly, could that be an indicator of risk for anxiety or depression? Is that something we can do something about?”
Since this technique is non-invasive and measures a physical response, it could also be useful for managing stress in babies or people who cannot communicate.
The second task of my stress assessment was, in my opinion, even worse than the first. I was asked to count backwards from 2023 in intervals of 17. One of the 3 impassive strangers on the panel stopped me every time I made a mistake and asked me to start over.
I admit, I’m bad at mental math.
As I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to force my brain to do the subtraction, all I could think about was that I wanted to flee the increasingly suffocating room.
During the investigation, only one of the 29 stress test volunteers actually asked to leave. The rest, like me, completed their tasks – probably feeling varying degrees of humiliation – and were rewarded with another relaxing session of white noise through the headphones at the end.
Anxious apes
Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of this approach is that, since thermal cameras measure a physical response to stress that is innate in many primates, it can also be used in non-human apes.
Researchers are currently developing its use in sanctuaries for great apes, including chimpanzees and gorillas. They want to find out how to reduce stress and improve the well-being of animals that may have been rescued from traumatic circumstances.
The team has already found that showing adult chimpanzees video footage of baby chimpanzees has a calming effect. When the researchers installed a video screen near the rescued chimpanzees’ enclosure, they observed that the noses of the animals viewing the images became hot.
Therefore, in terms of stress, watching baby animals playing is the opposite of a surprise job interview or a mental math task.
The use of thermal cameras in ape sanctuaries could be very useful in helping rescued animals adapt and integrate into a new social group and unfamiliar environment.
“They can’t express how they feel, but they can be very good at masking their feelings,” explains Marianne Paisley, a researcher at the University of Sussex who studies the well-being of great apes.
“We have studied primates for the last 100 years or so to understand ourselves.
“We now know a lot about human mental health, so maybe we can use that and give back to them.”
So perhaps my brief scientific experience could contribute, in a small way, to alleviating the distress of some of our primate cousins.
Additional reporting: Kate Stephens. Photos: Kevin Church.
Keep reading:
* How to identify stress and anxiety symptoms, act in time
* The 60-second trick that relieves stress
* Follow these 5 recommendations to reduce stress
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