Comparing apples and oranges or different types of citrus fruits? Using wearable versus stationary devices to analyze psychophysiological data

Abstract

Wearable devices capable of capturing psychophysiological signals are popular.However, such devices have, yet, to be established in experimental and clinical research. This study, therefore, compared psychophysiological data (skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV)) captured with a wearable device (Microsoft band 2) to those of a stationary device (Biopac MP150), in an experimental pain induction paradigm. Additionally, the present study aimed to compare two analytical techniques of HRV psychophysiological data: traditional (i.e., peaks are detected and manually checked) versus automated analysis using Python programs. Forty-three university students (86% female; Mage = 21.37 years) participated in the cold pressor pain induction task. Results showed that the majority of the correlations between the two devices for the mean HR were significant and strong (rs > .80) both during baseline and experimental phases. For the time-domain measure of mean RR (function of autonomic influences) of HRV, the correlations between the two devices at baseline were almost perfect (rs = .99), whereas at the experimental phase were significantly strong (rs > .74). However, no significant correlations were found for mean SCL (p> .05). Additionally, automated analysis led to similar features for HRV stationary data as the traditional analysis. Implications for data collection include the establishment of a methodology to compare stationary to mobile devices and a new, more cost efficient way of collecting psychophysiological data. Implications for data analysis include analyzing the data faster, with less effort and allowing for large amounts of data to be recorded. K E Y W O R D SBland-Altman plots, heart rate variability, psychophysiological data, root mean square error, skin conductance response, stationary equipment, wearable device

Heart Rate Variability and Pain: A Systematic Review

“…Cold pain was elicited using mostly the cold pressor task [ 32 , 39 , 43 , 51 , 52 , 56 , 61 , 67 , 78 , 93 ], but it was also induced using a cold plate [ 13 , 88 ], a thermal aluminum cylinder device [ 83 ], the immersion of a hand [ 41 , 57 , 87 , 94 ] or a foot [ 72 , 73 ] in cold water, facial cooling [ 62 ], thermal stimulation devices [ 60 , 72 , 91 , 98 ], the cold cup test [ 50 ], and holding a plastic bottle with iced water [ 68 , 92 ].…”

“…Cold pain stimulation elicited an increase in the parasympathetic components of HRV, such as RMSSD [ 32 , 67 , 78 , 83 , 87 ], SDNN [ 67 , 83 ], CVI [ 51 , 87 ], HF [ 83 ], mean RR [ 83 ], and IBI [ 62 ]. Nevertheless, an increase in the sympathetic activity was registered by the reduction in HRV [ 41 ], mean IBI [ 78 ], and mean RR [ 61 ] and the increase in the log LF [ 60 , 83 , 87 ] and LF/HF ratio [ 87 , 88 ].…”

“…Then, the results were averaged for the number of trials [ 13 , 47 , 53 , 77 ] with the calculated thresholds being the average temperature (in °C) at which each participant indicated experiencing noticeable pain and moderate pain during each of the three exposures. Cold pain thresholds were identified as the cold temperature at which the subject reported the stimulus as painful [ 87 , 88 , 91 , 98 ] or the total time from immersion until a participant verbally reported pain [ 67 ]. Pressure pain thresholds were reached when the participant’s sensation changed from pressure (evoked via a pressure algometer) to pain, which was averaged for a specific number of trials [ 34 , 42 , 65 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 81 , 82 , 91 ].…”

How Response Styles Moderate the Relationship between Daily Stress and Social Interactions in Depression, Social Phobia, and Controls

“…Skills such as a flexible response style that help an individual balance between effort and reward are practically and clinically useful. Engagement in social activities such as hobbies can reduce depressive symptoms [16] and future studies may also include psychophysiological parameters when examining these interactions [17].…”

Augmenting Exposure Therapy: Mobile Augmented Reality for Specific Phobia

“…The Empatica E4 was worn on the wrist and calculated both HR and SC. Whereas HR measured at the wrist is highly similar to HR measured using stationary devices, SC measurement appears to show limited agreement between wearable and stationary monitoring, possibly owing to electrode placement, sampling frequency, and the presence of fewer sweat glands resulting in lower responsiveness of the signal (Menghini et al, 2019;Konstantinou et al, 2020). However, despite low correlation between SC signals from Empatica E4 and stationary measurement, the wearable SC signal is found to be usable at parameter level and even shows good sensitivity to emotional stress (Ollander et al, 2017;Menghini et al, 2019;van Lier et al, 2019).…”