Induction of acute stress through an internet-delivered Trier Social Stress Test as assessed by photoplethysmography on a smartphone

Harvie, Heidi S.; Jain, Barbie; Nelson, Benjamin W.; Knight, Erik L.; Roos, Leslie E.; Giuliano, Ryan J.

doi:10.1080/10253890.2021.1995714

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…As reported elsewhere (25), the digital TSST elicited a significant cardiac response relative to the control group, as there was a significant effect of pulse rate by wave ( F (4.82,491.24) = 3.92, p = .002). Exploratory contrasts corrected for multiple comparisons indicated that there was a significant deceleration in pulse rate from wave 4 (immediately after the speech portion of the digital TSST) to subsequent waves 6 and 7 (recovery), as well as a significant deceleration in pulse rate from wave 5 (immediately after the arithmetic portion of the digital TSST) to waves 6 and 7 (Figure 1A).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Classic laboratory-delivered variants of the TSST have previously been found to influence pulse rate dynamics through sympathetic nervous system activation (22) and have been recently extended to Internet-delivered variants of the task (23,24). This includes our own work demonstrating proof-of-concept modulations of PPG and self-report in response to an Internet-delivered TSST (iTSST) relative to a control group (25). Here, we reanalyze that data set to perform a deeper examination of whether PPG measures covary with self-reported affect across the experiment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Smartphone Photoplethysmography Pulse Rate Covaries With Stress and Anxiety During a Digital Acute Social Stressor

et al. 2023

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Objective Heart rate is a transdiagnostic correlate of affective states and the stress diathesis model of health. While most psychophysiological research has been conducted in laboratory environments, recent technological advances have provided the opportunity to index pulse rate dynamics in real world environments with commercially available mobile health (mHealth) and wearable photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors that allow for improved ecologically validity of psychophysiological research. Unfortunately, adoption of wearable devices are unevenly distributed across important demographic characteristics, including socioeconomic status, education, and age making it difficult to collect pulse rate dynamics in diverse populations. Therefore, there is a need to democratize mHealth PPG research by harnessing more widely adopted smartphone-based PPG to both promote inclusivity and examine whether smartphone-based PPG can predict concurrent affective states. Methods In the current preregistered study with open data and code, we examined the covariation of smartphone-based PPG and self-reported stress and anxiety during an online variant of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), as well as prospective relationships between PPG and future perceptions of stress and anxiety in a sample of 102 university students. Results Smartphone-based PPG significantly covaries with self-reported stress and anxiety during acute digital social stressors. PPG pulse rate was significantly associated with concurrent self-reported stress and anxiety (b = 0.44, p = 0.018) as well as prospective stress and anxiety at the subsequent time points, although the strength of this association diminished the farther away pulse rate got from self-reported stress and anxiety (lag 1 Model: b = 0.42, p = .024; lag 2 model: b = 0.38, p = 0.044). Conclusions These findings indicate that PPG provides a proximal measure of the physiological correlates of stress and anxiety. Smartphone-based PPG can be used as an inclusive method for diverse populations to index pulse rate in remote digital study designs.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smartphone Photoplethysmography Pulse Rate Covaries With Stress and Anxiety During a Digital Acute Social Stressor

et al. 2023

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“…First, the findings from this study are based on the assessment of stress from self-report measures (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ). Future research can include additional physiological measures, such as the approach taken by Harvie et al ( 2021 ) who had participants measure their own heart rate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have been conducted to try and validate online versions of TSST, delivered through virtual reality tools (e.g., Zimmer et al, 2019 ), and more recently delivered by video conferencing online (Eagle et al, 2021 ; Gunnar et al, 2021 ; Harvie et al, 2021 ). However, some of these Internet-delivered studies did not include a control group (Eagle et al, 2021 ; Gunnar et al, 2021 ), which limits the opportunity to understand and interpret the outcomes of the stress manipulation, for example, by not accounting for potential additional psychological stress as a result of video conferencing (Riedl, 2021 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, some of these Internet-delivered studies did not include a control group (Eagle et al, 2021 ; Gunnar et al, 2021 ), which limits the opportunity to understand and interpret the outcomes of the stress manipulation, for example, by not accounting for potential additional psychological stress as a result of video conferencing (Riedl, 2021 ). One study included a control group (Harvie et al, 2021 ), but required the (virtual) presence of at least three experimenters (i.e., the researcher and two panelists) in each video conferencing session, which limits online stress studies to live tasks in which the presence of the researchers is required nevertheless (virtually rather than in-person).…”

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confidence: 99%

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A method to induce stress in human subjects in online research environments

2022

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This paper presents a method to induce stress in human subjects during online participation in research studies without the presence of researchers. In this study, participants in the stress-inducing condition (N = 52, 44%) were asked to answer general knowledge and mathematical questions which people often get wrong, and did so under time pressure as well as receiving feedback. In contrast, participants in the control condition (N = 66, 56%) did not have time pressure or receive feedback. The stress manipulation was found to be effective, as the reported state anxiety and visual analog scale on stress scores were higher for the stress group than for the non-stress group (both findings, p < 0.001). Consistent findings were found when accounting for trait anxiety as a moderator, with the exception of the state anxiety levels in high trait anxiety group. This stressing method combines the established stress conditions of uncontrollability (such as time pressures) and social evaluative threats (such as negative feedback). In addition, the method contains specific measures (such as a commitment statement and attention check questions) to enhance the internal validity by preventing and detecting cheating or random responses. This method can be deployed through any commonly available online software. It offers a simple and cost-effective way to collect data online – which fits the increasing need to carry out research in virtual and online environments.

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Cardiovascular, self-report, and behavioral stress reactivity to the group-based Trier Social Stress Test with pandemic-related protocol adaptations

Helminen

Scheer

2023

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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Induction of acute stress through an internet-delivered Trier Social Stress Test as assessed by photoplethysmography on a smartphone

Cited by 13 publications

References 35 publications

Smartphone Photoplethysmography Pulse Rate Covaries With Stress and Anxiety During a Digital Acute Social Stressor

Smartphone Photoplethysmography Pulse Rate Covaries With Stress and Anxiety During a Digital Acute Social Stressor

A method to induce stress in human subjects in online research environments

Cardiovascular, self-report, and behavioral stress reactivity to the group-based Trier Social Stress Test with pandemic-related protocol adaptations

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