Volitional control of piloerection: objective evidence and its potential utility in neuroscience research

The ability of volitional control of piloerection has been reported in a rare subset of individuals. This ability may be useful to study involuntary emotional piloerection, as research on this phenomenon has suffered from low reproducibility. However, objective evidence at a group-level and stability under experimental constraints remain to be examined. The present study aimed to validate existing findings of voluntary generated piloerection (VGP) and to examine its potential contribution to neuroscientific research based on objective evidence of this ability. In Study 1, to confirm the characteristics of VGP reported in previous studies and identify individuals with VGP capability, an online survey of VGP candidates found through a large-scale screening was conducted. In Study 2, a total of 18 VGP holders participated in a mail-based piloerection measurement experiment, and the nature of VGP was examined based on the objective evidence obtained by image-based analysis (GooseLab). The results of the web survey largely recapitulated the characteristics of VGP reported in previous studies, and objective measurements revealed the utility of this ability in neuroscientific research. For some participants, VGP appeared to be emotionally promoted, which suggests that VGP shares the emotional nature of involuntary piloerection. The findings from this study demonstrated the possible contribution of VGP to elucidating the mechanism of involuntary emotional piloerection and the neural basis of piloerection itself.