Sleep is a complex process: the timing of sleep is regulated by two systems (the sleep homeostat and the circadian clock) and there are many potential functions of sleep. The aim of this thesis was to investigate: the impact of light on the regulation of sleep timing (study 1) and the role of sleep in emotional processing (study 2). Study 1 used natural variations in environmental light levels at different geographical locations, to examine the influence of daily light irradiance on sleep timing and chronotype using the Munich chronotype questionnaire (MCTQ). 6443 students were included in this study from six universities from the northern and southern hemispheres. Students in southern hemisphere cities had earlier sleep timings than those in the northern cities. Daily irradiance was higher in the southern hemisphere cities. The amount of time spent outside, age and sex, but not daily irradiance, influenced sleep timings. Study 2 explored the impact of an analogue traumatic event (trauma film) in students who were either sleep deprived or not sleep deprived on intrusive memories ("flashbacks"), sleep physiology and the impact of an increased risk of a mood disorder on this relationship. In this study the sleep deprived participants (n=19) reported fewer intrusive memories to the trauma film than those not sleep deprived (n=22). A change in sleep physiology was observed in the first sleep period following the trauma film, which was more pronounced in the sleep deprived group: increased levels of arousal, REM density and activity in the occipital region. Only three participants at-risk of a mood disorder completed study 2: their data are presented as case studies. In conclusion this research has demonstrated that differences in sleep timings exist between cities in the southern and northern hemispheres and has confirmed that many factors can influence sleep timing. It has also been demonstrated that following a highly emotional event not sleeping may have a beneficial effect, which has implications for the treatment of people after trauma.

In order to simulate virtual humans more realistically and enable them life-like behaviours, several exploration research on emotion calculation, synthetic perception, and decision making process have been discussed. A series of sub-modules have been designed and simulation results have been presented with discussion. A visual based synthetic perception system has been proposed in this thesis, which allows virtual humans to detect the surrounding virtual environment through a collision-based synthetic vision system. It enables autonomous virtual humans to change their emotion states according to stimuli in real time. The synthetic perception system also allows virtual humans to remember limited information within their own First-in-first-out short-term virtual memory. The new emotion generation method includes a novel hierarchical emotion structure and a group of emotion calculation equations, which enables virtual humans to perform emotionally in real-time according to their internal and external factors. Emotion calculation equations used in this research were derived from psychologic emotion measurements. Virtual humans can utilise the information in virtual memory and emotion calculation equations to generate their own numerical emotion states within the hierarchical emotion structure. Those emotion states are important internal references for virtual humans to adopt appropriate behaviours and also key cues for their decision making. The work introduces a dynamic emotional motion database structure for virtual human modelling. When developing realistic virtual human behaviours, lots of subjects were motion-captured whilst performing emotional motions with or without intent. The captured motions were endowed to virtual characters and implemented in different virtual scenarios to help evoke and verify design ideas, possible consequences of simulation (such as fire evacuation). This work also introduced simple heuristics theory into decision making process in order to make the virtual human’s decision making more like real human. Emotion values are proposed as a group of the key cues for decision making under the simple heuristic structures. A data interface which connects the emotion calculation and the decision making structure together has also been designed for the simulation system.

In the past, Chinese normative values deprived daughters of education, choice and autonomy, relegating them to a dependent domestic role within a rigid family hierarchy. This is no longer the norm. Today, Chinese daughters are widely educated and many are working outside the home, becoming financial assets to their families. Despite this, gendered expectations concerning filial obligation have not abated, and perhaps surprisingly given their modern lifestyles and financial contributions, Chinese daughters continue to accept this responsibility, including caregiving for ageing parents. The aim of this thesis is to explore the nature of the current caregiving paradigm between Chinese daughters, their parents and parents-in-law. It seeks to understand why Chinese daughters continue to undertake filial obligation when they are no longer dependent on the family; how they manage the practical discharge of filial obligation; and the ways in which traditional filial obligation have shifted. In furtherance of this exploration, in 2011 and 2012, 58 Chinese women and 6 Filipina domestic helpers were interviewed in Hong Kong and Singapore. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcribed data. Symbolic interactionism, caregiving motivation models, and Hochschild's (1983) theory of emotion management provided the conceptual and theoretical framework for the research. Drawing from the data, a support and care typology was developed reflecting the varying levels of daughters' filial support and their motivations for providing this support. Among these respondents, the core belief in "duty" has not fundamentally changed from that of their parents' generation. However, feelings of affection and gratitude, the strength of traditional or contemporary norms, and one’s self-image together with emotion work, moderated the duration and quality of care daughters were willing to provide. These factors may also determine whether caregiving is outsourced to foreign domestic helpers, or whether parents and in-laws are placed in nursing homes, and the nature of care provided thereafter.

Depuis une quinzaine d'années, l'Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique fonctionnelle (IRMf) permet d'extraire de l'information sur le fonctionnement cérébral et particulièrement sur la localisation des processus cognitifs. L'information contenue par les acquisitions en IRMf est extraite à l'aide du modèle linéaire général et du processus d'inférence statistique. Bien que cette méthode dite « classique » ait permis de valider la plupart des modèles lésionnels de manière non invasive, elle souffre de certaines limites. Pour résoudre ce problème, différentes techniques d'analyse ont émergé et proposent une nouvelle façon d'interpréter les données de la neuroimagerie. Nous présentons deux nouvelles méthodes multivariées basées sur les cartes de Kohonen. Nos méthodes analysent les données IRMf avec le moins d'a priori possibles. En parallèle, nous tentons d'extraire de l'information sur les réseaux neuronaux impliqués dans les émotions. La première de ces méthodes s'intéresse à l'information de spécialisation fonctionnelle et la seconde à l'information de connectivité fonctionnelle. Nous présentons les résultats qui en découlent, puis chacune des méthodes est comparée à l'analyse dite classique en termes d'informations extraites. De plus, notre attention s'est focalisée sur la notion de valence émotionnelle et nous tentons d'établir l'existence d'un éventuel réseau partagé entre valence positive et valence négative. La constance de ce réseau est évaluée à la fois entre modalités perceptives et entre catégories de stimuli. Chacune des méthodes proposées permet de corroborer l'information recueillie par la méthode classique, en apportant de nouvelles informations sur les processus étudiés. Du point de vue des émotions, notre travail met en lumière un partage du réseau cérébral pour les va-lences négative et positive ainsi qu'une constance de cette information dans certaines régions cérébrales entre modalités perceptives et entre catégories. / In the last fifteen years, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been used to extract information about cognitive processes location. The information contained in fMRI acquisitions is usually extracted using the general linear model coupled to the statistical inference process. Although this classical method has validated noninvasively most of the lesional models, it suffers from some limitations. To solve this problem, various analysis techniques have emerged and propose a new way of interpreting neuroimaging data. In this thesis, we present two multivariate methods to analyze fMRI data with the least possible a priori. In parallel, we are trying to extract information about brain emotion processing. The first method focuses on the brain functional specialization and the second method on the brain functional connectivity. After results presentation, each method is compared to the so-called classical analysis in terms of extracted information. In addition, emphasis was put on the concept of emotional valence. We try to establish the existence of a possible split between positive and negative valence networks. The consistency of the network is evaluated across both perceptual modalities and stimuli categories. Each of the proposed methods are as accurate as the conventional method and provide new highlights on the studied processes. From the perspective of emotions, our work highlights a shared brain network for positive and negative valences and a consistency of this information in some brain regions across both perceptual modalities and stimuli categories.

L'autobiographie pose problème quand elle est envisagée dans le genre théâtral. Du fait que l'auteur dramatique s'exprime par la bouche d'êtres fictifs, la parole des personnages ne pourrait être assimilée à la sienne. Pourtant, il semble que, tant dans les dialogues qu'elles donnent à entendre que dans les situations, personnages et lieux qu'elles mettent en scène certaines pièces, en particulier à partir du XVIIIe siècle, qui constitue une étape majeure dans l'expression de soi, portent en elles les signes d'une expression autobiographique. Si l'autobiographie n'existe pas au théâtre dans les termes dégagés par des théoriciens comme P. Lejeune ou G. Gusdorf, nous étudions ici les modalités sous lesquelles elle se manifeste néanmoins, quasiment toujours de manière cachée, implicite, ambiguë, détournée mais affective. En plus d'une méthode qui permettrait, au lecteur d'une part, au spectateur d'autre part, d'identifier et d'attester cette expression autobiographique en dégageant certains aspects textuels et scéniques, nous nous attachons à réfléchir à l'expression autobiographique avec la relation qu'entretiennent les oeuvres de notre corpus avec le public, une relation toute entière épanouie dans l'émotion. Des sentiments qu'accompagnent des réactions physiques ressenties par le lecteur/spectateur sont donc générées par la reconnaissance de la voix de l'auteur dans un drame qui mêle autobiographie et fiction. Nous nous intéressons à l'expression autobiographique de l'auteur dramatique dans la perspective d'une relation particulière de celui-ci avec le public, relation qui contraste avec les principes brechtiens qui ont dominé la création théâtrale au XXe siècle. / The autobiographical genre is a problem when it is considered inside the theatral genre. Because the dramatical author express himself through the mouth of fictional characters, the words of the characters could not be considered as the expression of the author himself. However, it seems that through the dialogues that can be heard, the situations, the characters and the places that are staged, some plays, especially since the 18th century, which represents a major step in self-expression, contains the signs of an autobiographical expression. Although the autobiographical genre as defined by P. Lejeune or G. Gusdorf does not exists in the theatre genre, we will study here how it nevertheless expresses itself, that is to say almost always in a hidden, implicit, ambiguous, diverted, but probable way. We will think of a method allowing the reader, but also the member of the audience, to identify and testify the presence of this autobiographical expression by emphazising some textual and scenic aspects. We will also work on connecting the autobiographical expression with the relationship that live the authors of the new work contained in our corpus with the audience. This relationship being fully opend up in emotion. Some feelings, coming with physical reactions felt by the reader/audience, are created by the recognition of the author's voice in a drama that mixes autobiographical and fiction. We will take an interest in the autobiographical expression of the dramatical author through the perspective of his particular relationship with the audience, relationship that contrasts with Brecht's principles, which have ruled the theatrical creation in the 20th century.

Cette recherche part du constat que les publicitaires sont face à un marché de plus en plus encombré. Ce nouveau contexte publicitaire, à savoir, double encombrement marché et média ainsi que la maturité publicitaire du consommateur, est au coeur même de l’enjeu de la publicité. La surprise peut être, ainsi, un moyen privilégié à la disposition des créatifs d’agences publicitaires pour capter l’attention des consommateurs. L’objectif de la présente recherche doctorale se propose de mettre en évidence le rôle de la surprise au sein du processus de persuasion publicitaire et d’essayer d’en expliciter les modalités, tout en prenant en considération l’impact de la culture. Notre problématique consiste à examiner, dans le domaine publicitaire, l’effet de surprise et son impact sur l’attitude envers l’annonce (Aad) et l’attitude envers la marque (Ab), tout en tenant compte de l’impact de la culture. L’ambition de notre travail est donc d’étudier en amont la surprise et d’essayer de mettre en évidence l’existence d’une influence de cette émotion particulière sur la persuasion publicitaire. Cela se traduit par la question suivante : quel est l’impact de la surprise sur la persuasion publicitaire dans un contexte en mutation ? L’enquête qualitative menée auprès d’experts français et tunisiens a permis de compléter, par l’apport des implications managériales, la partie théorique et de guider de manière pratique la phase expérimentation. Le développement d’un modèle conceptuel a permis de définir le processus persuasif des individus exposés à une annonce surprenante. Ainsi, nous avons mis en avant le rôle médiateur des réactions affectives déclenchées par l’annonce dans le processus de persuasion des annonces surprenantes tout en précisant l’articulation des différentes étapes de ce processus. A travers cette recherche, nous avons essayé de tester deux spots différents. Le premier contient des situations agréables et le deuxième comporte des situations désagréables. Nous avons remarqué que les réactions des personnes interrogées sont distinctes selon le spot visionné. Par ailleurs, plusieurs conclusions majeures résultent de l’analyse des résultats : nous avons pu mettre en évidence le rôle de la surprise au sein du processus de persuasion publicitaire et en expliciter les modalités, tout en prenant en considération l’impact de la culture. Pour les deux types de publicités, l’effet direct de la surprise sur le rappel est vérifié. Par ailleurs, l’attitude envers la publicité constitue le déterminant essentiel de l’attitude à l’égard de la marque. Les résultats ont également permis de mettre en avant le rôle médiateur de trois variables, à savoir : l’attention, l’attitude envers l’annonce et les réactions affectives déclenchées par l’annonce. En outre, les résultats des analyses mettent en lumière deux variables capables de modifier la force et parfois le sens de certaines des relations établies auparavant. Il s’agit de la variable besoin d’émotion et de la variable culture. Le test du modèle global de notre recherche tient compte d’une relation entre les croyances envers l’annonce et les croyances envers la marque et ce par le biais des équations structurelles. Ce test a montré que notre modèle présente de bonnes qualités d’ajustement et de représentation. / This research is based on the fact that advertisers face an ever crowded market. This new advertising context-that is: double crowding of market and media as well as the consumer’s advertising mature awareness is at the very heart of advertising stake. Surprise can thus be a privileged means available to the creators of advertising agencies to capture the consumers’ attention. The objective of the present doctoral research aims to highlight the role of surprise within the process of advertising persuasion and elicit its functions while considering the impact of culture. Our concern is to examine the effect of surprise-in the advertising field- and its impact on the attitude towards the ad (Aad) and the attitude towards the brand (Ab) without ignoring the impact of culture. Our aim is to study surprise and to highlight they existence of an influence of this particular advertising persuasion. This can be expressed in the following question: What is the impact of surprise on advertising persuasion in a changing context ? The qualitative enquiry conducted with French and Tunisian experts, thanks to managerial implications, helped complete the theoretical part and guide the experimentation phase in a practical way. The development of a conceptual model fostered the definition of the persuasive process of individuals exposed to a surprising ad or announcement. Thus we focused on the mediating roles of the affective reactions caused by the announcement in the persuasion process of surprising ads while considering the articulation of the different steps of this process. Through this research, we tried to test two different spots. The first containing pleasant situations and the second containing unpleasant ones. We noticed the answers of the people interviewed are different according to the spot seen. Yet several major conclusions are made out of the results analysis: we could highlight the role of surprise within the advertising persuasion process and elicit its modalities, considering the cultural impact. For both types of advertising, the direct effect of surprise on the reminder is checked. Moreover, the attitude towards advertising represents the essential determiner of the attitude towards the brand. The results also helped promote the mediating role of three variables: attention, attitude towards the ad and the affective reactions caused by the ad. Besides, the results of the analyses highlight two variables capable of modifying the strength and sometimes the meaning of certain relations established previously: the emotion need variable and the culture variable. The global model test of our research-conducted by means of structural equations- considers the relation between beliefs towards the ad and beliefs towards the brand. The test showed that our model presents good adjustment and representation qualities.

Les travaux de recherche de la thèse portent sur l'étude et la formalisation des interactions émotionnelles Humain-Machine. Au delà d’une détection d'informations paralinguistiques (émotions, disfluences,...) ponctuelles, il s'agit de fournir au système un profil interactionnel et émotionnel de l'utilisateur dynamique, enrichi pendant l’interaction. Ce profil permet d’adapter les stratégies de réponses de la machine au locuteur, et il peut également servir pour mieux gérer des relations à long terme. Le profil est fondé sur une représentation multi-niveau du traitement des indices émotionnels et interactionnels extraits à partir de l'audio via les outils de détection des émotions du LIMSI. Ainsi, des indices bas niveau (variations de la F0, d'énergie, etc.), fournissent des informations sur le type d'émotion exprimée, la force de l'émotion, le degré de loquacité, etc. Ces éléments à moyen niveau sont exploités dans le système afin de déterminer, au fil des interactions, le profil émotionnel et interactionnel de l'utilisateur. Ce profil est composé de six dimensions : optimisme, extraversion, stabilité émotionnelle, confiance en soi, affinité et domination (basé sur le modèle de personnalité OCEAN et les théories de l’interpersonal circumplex). Le comportement social du système est adapté en fonction de ce profil, de l'état de la tâche en cours, et du comportement courant du robot. Les règles de création et de mise à jour du profil émotionnel et interactionnel, ainsi que de sélection automatique du comportement du robot, ont été implémentées en logique floue à l'aide du moteur de décision développé par un partenaire du projet ROMEO. L’implémentation du système a été réalisée sur le robot NAO. Afin d’étudier les différents éléments de la boucle d’interaction émotionnelle entre l’utilisateur et le système, nous avons participé à la conception de plusieurs systèmes : système en Magicien d’Oz pré-scripté, système semi-automatisé, et système d’interaction émotionnelle autonome. Ces systèmes ont permis de recueillir des données en contrôlant plusieurs paramètres d’élicitation des émotions au sein d’une interaction ; nous présentons les résultats de ces expérimentations, et des protocoles d’évaluation de l’Interaction Humain-Robot via l’utilisation de systèmes à différents degrés d’autonomie. / Analysing and formalising the emotional aspect of the Human-Machine Interaction is the key to a successful relation. Beyond and isolated paralinguistic detection (emotion, disfluences…), our aim consists in providing the system with a dynamic emotional and interactional profile of the user, which can evolve throughout the interaction. This profile allows for an adaptation of the machine’s response strategy, and can deal with long term relationships. A multi-level processing of the emotional and interactional cues extracted from speech (LIMSI emotion detection tools) leads to the constitution of the profile. Low level cues ( F0, energy, etc.), are then interpreted in terms of expressed emotion, strength, or talkativeness of the speaker. These mid-level cues are processed in the system so as to determine, over the interaction sessions, the emotional and interactional profile of the user. The profile is made up of six dimensions: optimism, extroversion, emotional stability, self-confidence, affinity and dominance (based on the OCEAN personality model and the interpersonal circumplex theories). The information derived from this profile could allow for a measurement of the engagement of the speaker. The social behaviour of the system is adapted according to the profile, and the current task state and robot behaviour. Fuzzy logic rules drive the constitution of the profile and the automatic selection of the robotic behaviour. These determinist rules are implemented on a decision engine designed by a partner in the project ROMEO. We implemented the system on the humanoid robot NAO. The overriding issue dealt with in this thesis is the viable interpretation of the paralinguistic cues extracted from speech into a relevant emotional representation of the user. We deem it noteworthy to point out that multimodal cues could reinforce the profile’s robustness. So as to analyse the different parts of the emotional interaction loop between the user and the system, we collaborated in the design of several systems with different autonomy degrees: a pre-scripted Wizard-of-Oz system, a semi-automated system, and a fully autonomous system. Using these systems allowed us to collect emotional data in robotic interaction contexts, by controlling several emotion elicitation parameters. This thesis presents the results of these data collections, and offers an evaluation protocol for Human-Robot Interaction through systems with various degrees of autonomy.

Le sourire est une grimace caractéristique qui se forme sur un visage humain, et qui a plusieurs dimensions: physiologique, psychologique et sociale.L'analyse descriptive du sourire, sa distinction d'avec le rire, mais aussi sa qualité de mimique expressive spécifique par rapport à l'expression animale, permettent d'établir que celui qui sourit se place dans une situation d'ouverture aux autres et au monde, et dans un état de non-coïncidence à soi caractéristique de l'humanité.C'est pourquoi voir quelqu'un sourire, ce n'est pas seulement reconnaître une émotion, ni même la partager. C'est faire l'expérience de la façon dont un sujet habite le monde et s'y oriente. C'est pré-sentir la possibilité d'un nouveau type de relations entre les hommes, d'un passage à une société et une morale ouvertes. C'est enfin, grâce à l'ironie et au charme de certains sourires, l'occasion de saisir la présence quasi imperceptible d'un Je-ne-sais-quoi capable de combler nos vies.Les spiritualités de type religieux n'ont pas méconnu ces qualités si subtiles du sourire. Au sein de chacune d'entre elles, le sourire a une place, repérable à partir de textes et de documents iconographiques. Cette place est cependant rarement mise en lumière. Le sourire, peut-être à cause de l'ouverture qui le caractérise, peut représenter une menace pour toutes les pensées qui se rigidifient. / The smile is a distinctive funny face (grimace) appearing on a human face, with several dimensions: physiological , psychological and social. The descriptive analysis of the smile, its distinction from laughter, but also what characterizes it as a specific and expressive sign language, with respect to animal expression, make it possible to establish that the one who smiles places himself in a situation of openness to others and to the world, and in a state of non-coincidence to oneself which is a characteristic of humanity.That's why, seeing someone smile is not only about recognizing an emotion, or even sharing it. It is experiencing the way an individual inhabits the world and finds his bearings. It is to sense the possibility of a new kind of relationships between human beings, a shift to an open society and morality. Lastly, thanks to the irony and charm of some smiles, seeing someone smile is the opportunity to feel the almost imperceptible presence of a Je-ne-sais-quoi (I don't know what) which is able to fulfill our lives. Such subtle qualities of the smile have never been ignored by religious spiritualities. Within each of them, the smile has a place identifiable from writings or iconographic documents. Nevertheless this place is hardly ever highlighted. The smile, perhaps because of its openness that characterizes it, can be a threat to all the thoughts that become rigid.

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has been implicated in a broad range of cognitive and emotional functions, including the processing of negative emotion. Furthermore, abnormalities in dACC activity have been associated with anxiety and depression, disorders in which negative emotion is dysregulated. Thus, a better understanding of the precise contributions of the dACC to negative emotion could give us important insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders. However, despite extensive study of the dACC, its precise role in negative emotion is unclear. Instead there is mounting evidence that rather than being one functionally homogeneous region, subregions of the dACC may have distinct functional roles. This evidence is largely correlational, and interventional studies in experimental animals are required to address this. Accordingly, the work in this thesis causally assessed the contributions of two spatially distinct subregions of the dACC (rostral and caudal) to the regulation of the behavioural and cardiovascular correlates of negative emotion in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). These dACC subregions were targeted with indwelling cannulae to enable pharmacological manipulations to be carried out in a range of tasks, used to assess distinct components of negative emotion, such as conditioned fear and anxiety. The findings suggest that the rostral dACC and the caudal dACC do indeed have distinct contributions to the expression of negative emotion and the regulation of anxiety, respectively. Furthermore, an assessment of the anterograde projections of these subregions provides anatomical support for the observed functional differences.

The principal aim of this doctoral research has been to investigate whether various popular methods of emotion elicitation perform differently in terms of self-reported participant affect - and if so, whether any of them is better able to mimic real-life emotional situations. A secondary goal has been to understand how continuous affect can be classified into discrete categories - whether by using clustering algorithms, or resorting to human participants for creating the classifications. A variety of research directions subserved these main goals: firstly, developing data-driven strategies for selecting 'appropriate' stimuli, and matching them across various stimulus modalities (i.e., words, sounds, images,films and virtual environments / VEs); secondly, comparing the chosen modalities on various self-report measures (with VEs assessed both with and without a head-mounted display / HMD); thirdly, comparing how humans classify emotional information vs. a clustering algorithm; and finally, comparing all five lab-based stimulus modalities to emotional data collected via an experience sampling phone app. Findings / outputs discussed will include a matched database of stimuli geared towards lab use, how the choice of stimulus modality may affect research results, the links (or discrepancies) between human and machine classification of emotional information, as well as range restriction affecting lab stimuli relative to `real-life' emotional phenomena.