Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Galvanic skin response test'

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 49-52).
The rapid growth of the availability of wearable biosensors has created the opportunity for using physiological signals to measure worker performance. An important question is how to use such signals to not just measure, but actually predict worker performance on a task under stressful and potentially high risk conditions. Here we show that the biological signal known as galvanic skin response (GSR) allows such a prediction. We conduct an experiment where subjects answer arithmetic questions under low and high stress conditions while having their GSR monitored. Using only the GSR measured under low stress conditions, we are able to predict which subjects will perform well under high stress conditions with a median accuracy of 75%. If we try to make similar predictions without using any biometric signals, the median accuracy is 50%. Our results suggest that performance in high stress conditions can be predicted using signals obtained from GSR sensors in low stress conditions.
by Lee Carter Mundell.
S.M.

The skin conductance response is involved in the preparation for and response to stimuli with emotional significance. The neural mechanisms responsible for the generation of the skin conductance response are not well understood despite the common use of this signal as an index of emotional response. Data from anatomical, lesion, and neuroimaging studies in humans suggest that the amygdala, a component of the brain circuit for emotion, plays a critical role in the generation of the skin conductance response. Here we employ a novel combination of existing techniques to understand the stimuli that elicit skin conductance responses in the monkey and the neural mechanisms in the amygdala that participate in its generation. We recorded skin conductance responses in monkeys trained to perform a passive image viewing task. This paradigm is a staple of human emotion research but to date has not been adapted to the monkey. In addition, skin conductance responses to these stimuli were recorded in conjunction with single unit responses from the amygdala. This study addresses the relationship between the activity of single neurons recorded from identified nuclei of the monkey amygdala and autonomic responses. Neurons in multiple nuclei of the amygdala showed reliable changes in neuronal discharge prior to the skin conductance response. These neurons were primarily in the dorsal nuclei of the amygdala, which confirms predictions made from anatomical and neuroimaging data. It is suggested that these changes in neuronal discharge may correspond to the generation of this autonomic component of the expression of emotion.

Electrodermal responding (EDR) and heart rate (HR) were assessed for seven subjects participating in a reaction time task consequated with monetary bonuses (250, 100, and 10), monetary penalties (250,100, and 10), and a monetary neutral value (00). Unlike previous research employing group designs and a tonic measure (i.e., mean over long periods of time), this study utilized a single-subject design and a phasic measure (i.e., mean over 2-s intervals). Heart rate data was too variable for meaningful analysis. EDR data showed that the peak levels of EDR were higher for penalties than for the corresponding values of bonuses (e.g., -250 vs. +250) for most subjects. Similarly, peak levels of EDR were generally higher during sessions in which consequences were presented than in sessions during which consequences were absent.

This study examined the association of the experience of emotion and somatic changes. The study compared reported somatic changes generally experienced when anxious with the actual association of the experience of emotion and somatic changes as measured during a specific event. Emotions were measured as both general negative emotion as well as specific emotions: anger, disgust, fear, sadness and shame. Participants were volunteers from a Victorian university who agreed to watch a video depicting the dramatisation of child abuse. Throughout the video, participants indicated their experience of emotion. Measures were also taken throughout the procedure of facial expression and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). In order to examine emotional-congruence, subjects were divided into three groups. These groups were divided according to the congruence of subjects’ experienced emotion with autonomic changes and facial expressivity. Groups were divided separately for each of the emotion types. Where there was little difference between the reported experience of emotion and that, which would have been expected from the observed somatic changes, the subject was deemed to be in the Congruent Group. Subjects whose reported experience of emotion was greater or less than would be expected from observed somatic changes were allocated to the Over-reporter and Under-Reporter Groups respectively. This data was then compared to participants’ reports of the number of somatic symptoms usually experienced when anxious. It was found that participants who under-report the experience of general negative-emotion compared with their observed somatic changes (both GSR and facial expressivity) had lower trait-somatic-anxiety (reported fewer somatic symptoms usually experienced when anxious). There was no significant difference between the Congruent Group and Over-Reporter Group. The Under-Reporter Groups had significantly lower trait-somatic-anxiety than the Congruent Group when emotional-congruence was defined by fear and GSR, anger and GSR and sadness and facial expressivity. The actual association of shame and disgust with either somatic change, sadness with autonomic change and anger and fear with facial expressivity was unrelated to the number of somatic symptoms reported to be usually experienced when anxious. The results supported the idea that subjective reports of the number of somatic symptoms reported to be usually experienced when anxious reflect the actual association of somatic change and experience, but with limitations. The actual association of experience of fear with autonomic change seems to reflect the number of somatic symptoms reported to be usually experienced when anxious more than other emotions. Further for those for whom the experience of anger and negative-emotion has a greater association with somatic change, there was a greater number of somatic symptoms reported to be usually experienced when anxious. This would suggest that some people have a greater association of some experiences of emotion and somatic change. Furthermore, while there is an association between reported somatic changes generally experienced when anxious with the actual association of the experience of emotion and somatic changes as measured during a specific event, this was dependant on the association of the emotion types rather than being generalised for all emotions.

Although tic disorders are diagnosed as neurological disorders, neurobehavioral models suggest that tics are controlled by premonitory urges that may be conditioned to become aversive through childhood, and that tics are exhibited to alleviate such phenomena. However, only indirect measures have been used to assess the presence of the premonitory urge. This study utilized self-report and GSR measurements to examine whether a punishing contingency conditioned stimuli to be aversive during conditions of tic suppression and whether punishing contingencies exacerbate aversive private phenomena in two adults. Results indicated that conditions of response cost (RC) and differential reinforcement (DRO) were effective at reducing the number of tics compared to baseline. Moreover, GSR was unrelated to urge and suppression conditions despite higher self-reported urge ratings in DRO and RC conditions. Implications of findings are discussed.

Abstract Patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) may suffer from autonomic nervous system dysfunction even in the early phase of the disease. We assessed the autonomic cardiovascular and sudomotor regulation in de novo PD patients with and without medication. We also measured the dopamine (DAT) and serotonin transporter (SERT) uptake in the PD patients using 2β-carboxymethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)tropane (β-CIT) SPECT and studied the clinical correlates of the uptake. Sixty PD patients were included in the study and randomised to receive levodopa, bromocriptine or selegiline (n=20 in each) as their treatment. Thirty patients were examined with β-CIT SPECT. The results of the patients were compared with those of healthy controls and within the subgroups at different time points. Cardiovascular autonomic regulation was assessed using standard cardiovascular reflex tests at baseline, after six months' medication and following a 6-week washout period. The heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) regulation was impaired in PD patients at baseline, and PD medications modified the responses further. Bromocriptine and selegiline, in contrast to levodopa, increased the orthostatic BP fall and suppressed the BP response to isometric exercise. The long-term cardiovascular autonomic function was evaluated from ambulatory ECG recordings by analysis of traditional spectral and non-spectral components of HR fluctuation together with two-dimensional vector analysis and power-law relationship analysis of the HR dynamics. All spectral measures and the slope of the power-law relationship demonstrated impaired tonic cardiovascular regulation in the PD patients. Sympathetic sudomotor activity was evaluated using the sympathetic skin response (SSR). The major finding was suppression of the SSR amplitudes with an inverse correlation to clinical disability, whereas PD medication seemed to have only minor effects. The changes in amplitude and repetitiveness of the SSRs with normal adaptation suggest deficits at several levels of the SSR reflex arc. DAT uptake, assessed by β-CIT SPECT, was diminished in the striatum and especially the putamen of the PD patients, and correlated with the results of the cardiovascular reflex tests and ambulatory ECG recordings. Simultaneous measurement of SERT binding demonstrated decreased SERT availability in the thalamic and frontal areas. The results demonstrate disturbances of the reflectory and tonic cardiovascular autonomic regulation caused by PD itself. PD medications further modify the reflectory responses. The degenerative process in PD also involves the sympathetic sudomotor pathway. β-CIT SPECT provides a useful method for simultaneous assessment of DAT and SERT binding, demonstrating the deficit of serotonin metabolism in PD.

This research aims to monitor workers’ physiological reactions in virtual construction scenario. With the objective of leveraging affective sensing technology in construction scenario, experiments with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) was conducted in a 3D simulation developed based on a real construction site. The GSR results obtained from sensor were analyzed in order (i) to assess the feasibility of using virtual environment to generate real emotions, (ii) to examine the relation between questionnaires used to ask people about their experience and their physiological responses and (iii) to identify the factors that affect people’s emotional reactions in virtual environment. Subjects of the experimental group exhibited incoherent responses, as expected in experiments with human subjects. Based on the various reasons for this incoherence obtained from questionnaire part of the experiment, the potential in research for developing training methods with respect to workers’ physiological response capability was identified.

Physiological signals, which are controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), could be used to detect the affective state of computer users and therefore find applications in medicine and engineering. The Pupil Diameter (PD) seems to provide a strong indication of the affective state, as found by previous research, but it has not been investigated fully yet. In this study, new approaches based on monitoring and processing the PD signal for off-line and on-line affective assessment (“relaxation” vs. “stress”) are proposed. Wavelet denoising and Kalman filtering methods are first used to remove abrupt changes in the raw Pupil Diameter (PD) signal. Then three features (PDmean, PDmax and PDWalsh) are extracted from the preprocessed PD signal for the affective state classification. In order to select more relevant and reliable physiological data for further analysis, two types of data selection methods are applied, which are based on the paired t-test and subject self-evaluation, respectively. In addition, five different kinds of the classifiers are implemented on the selected data, which achieve average accuracies up to 86.43% and 87.20%, respectively. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is utilized to investigate the discriminating potential of each individual feature by evaluation of the area under the ROC curve, which reaches values above 0.90. For the on-line affective assessment, a hard threshold is implemented first in order to remove the eye blinks from the PD signal and then a moving average window is utilized to obtain the representative value PDr for every one-second time interval of PD. There are three main steps for the on-line affective assessment algorithm, which are preparation, feature-based decision voting and affective determination. The final results show that the accuracies are 72.30% and 73.55% for the data subsets, which were respectively chosen using two types of data selection methods (paired t-test and subject self-evaluation). In order to further analyze the efficiency of affective recognition through the PD signal, the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) was also monitored and processed. The highest affective assessment classification rate obtained from GSR processing is only 63.57% (based on the off-line processing algorithm). The overall results confirm that the PD signal should be considered as one of the most powerful physiological signals to involve in future automated real-time affective recognition systems, especially for detecting the “relaxation” vs. “stress” states.

During pregnancy, the basal activity is increased in both of our major stress response systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. At the same time, the reactivity towards stressors is reduced. These alterations sustain maternal and fetal homeostasis, and are involved in the regulation of gestational length. Although the feto-placental hormone synthesis produces the main endocrinological changes, also the central nervous system undergoes adaptation. Together, these profound adjustments have been suggested to make women’s mental health more vulnerable during pregnancy and postpartum period. The aim of this thesis was to examine factors connected to physiological stress responses during the late pregnancy in relation to pain, labour onset, emotional reactivity, and mental health. The first study examined the pain and sympathetic response during cold stress, in relation to time to delivery. Women with fewer days to spontaneous delivery had lower sympathetic reactivity, while no pain measure was associated with time to delivery. In the second study, acoustic startle response modulation was employed to study emotional reactivity during late gestation, and at four to six weeks postpartum. The startle response was measured by eye-blink electromyography, while the participants watched pleasant and unpleasant pictures, and positive and negative anticipation stimuli. A significant reduction in startle modulation by anticipation was found during the postpartum assessment. However, no startle modulation by pleasant, or unpleasant, pictures was detected at either time-point. The serum level of allopregnanolone, a neurosteroid implied in pregnancy-induced hyporeactivity, was analysed in relation to self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Although the participants reported low levels of depression, the women with the highest depression scores had significantly lower levels of serum allopregnanolone. There was no correlation between allopregnanolone and anxiety scores. In the fourth study, the cortisol awakening response was compared between women with depression during pregnancy, women with depression prior to pregnancy, and women who had never suffered from depression. No group differences in cortisol awakening response during late pregnancy were found. The results are in line with the previously described pregnancy-induced hyporesponsiveness, and add to the knowledge on maternal stress hyporeactivity, gestational length, and maternal mental health.

Tesis por compendio
[ES] Comprender el comportamiento humano en situaciones de riesgo, cómo los factores individuales y externos influyen en nuestras decisiones y en qué medida es posible influir y modificar nuestros comportamientos, constituye un desafío tanto para los científicos como para la sociedad en general. Desde la perspectiva de la Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (SST), así como en numerosos campos como la sociología y las finanzas, este tema tiene importantes implicaciones ya que las situaciones de riesgo son un aspecto común en diversos ámbitos de nuestra vida. La toma de riesgos (TR) es parte del proceso de toma de decisiones en situaciones de incertidumbre, en las que se conoce de antemano la probabilidad de cada consecuencia positiva o negativa. Si bien el concepto de la TR está bien definido en la literatura, se ha abordado desde diferentes perspectivas, por lo que los factores que se han propuesto para explicar o moderar la TR también son muy diversos. Centrándonos en los factores individuales (procesos cognitivos y emocionales) que influyen en la TR, estos pueden afectar la forma en que se abordan las situaciones peligrosas de dos maneras diferentes. En primer lugar, pueden sesgar la percepción de una situación, de modo que no se lleve a cabo una evaluación adecuada y por tanto esto lleve a conductas sesgadas. En segundo lugar, estos factores configuran una cierta propensión general al riesgo en los seres humanos, de modo que pueden o no sentirse atraídos por situaciones potencialmente peligrosas. De la misma manera que la definición de la TR se ha abordado desde diferentes perspectivas, su evaluación también se ha tratado desde diferentes puntos de vista y constituye hoy en día un desafío para investigadores y profesionales, por lo que no se ha encontrado un consenso claro en cuanto a la existencia de una medida validada para la TR. La evaluación de la TR se ha realizado tradicionalmente mediante cuestionarios; sin embargo, se ha demostrado que estas medidas presentan diversas limitaciones que pueden conducir a resultados alterados. Las tareas comportamentales surgen como una solución alternativa capaz de superar algunas de estas barreras. En cambio, su capacidad de transferencia a situaciones de la vida real parece ser limitada. La realidad virtual (RV) permite recrear situaciones reales simuladas para realizar evaluaciones basadas en el desempeño. La RV presenta numerosas ventajas que pueden aportar beneficios para la evaluación de los comportamientos humanos, ya que aporta una mayor inmersión, fidelidad y un mayor nivel de implicación que los métodos de evaluación tradicionales, y numerosos trabajos en el campo de la psicología aplicada y la neurociencia organizacional han avalado su uso para evaluación humana. En esta investigación, proponemos la RV como tecnología capaz de facilitar el estudio de los procesos de la TR, aprovechando sus numerosas posibilidades, que se pueden resumir como: simulación de situaciones de riesgo realistas, interacciones naturales con el entorno virtual, inclusión de medidas implícitas para evaluación oculta y medición fisiológica en tiempo real. Esta tesis proporciona aportaciones a la definición de la TR, particularmente en la identificación de qué factores constituyen este complejo proceso. Además, investiga el uso de la RV inmersiva en la investigación del comportamiento humano, específicamente para la evaluación de la TR, proporcionando premisas de diseño de entornos virtuales para la evaluación de los constructos psicológicos identificados como determinantes para definir la TR. Finalmente, analiza la validez de la RV en combinación con medidas fisiológicas para la evaluación de la TR de forma implícita.
[CA] Comprendre el comportament humà en situacions de risc, com els factors individuals i externs influeixen en les nostres decisions i en quina mesura és possible influir i modificar els nostres comportaments, constitueix un desafiament tant per als científics com per a la societat en general. Des de la perspectiva de la Seguretat i Salut en el Treball (SST), així com en nombrosos camps com la sociologia i les finances, aquest tema té importants implicacions ja que les situacions de risc són un aspecte comú en diversos àmbits de la nostra vida. La presa de riscos (PR) és part del procés de presa de decisions en situacions d'incertesa, en les quals es coneix per endavant la probabilitat de cada conseqüència positiva o negativa. Si bé el concepte de la PR està ben definit en la literatura, s'ha abordat des de diferents perspectives, per la qual cosa els factors que s'han proposat per a explicar o moderar la PR també són molt diversos. Centrant-nos en els factors individuals (processos cognitius i emocionals) que influeixen en la PR, aquests poden afectar la forma en què s'aborden les situacions perilloses de dues maneres diferents. En primer lloc, poden esbiaixar la percepció d'una situació, de manera que no es duga a terme una avaluació adequada i per tant això porte a conductes esbiaixades. En segon lloc, aquests factors configuren una certa propensió general al risc en els éssers humans, de manera que poden o no sentir-se atrets per situacions potencialment perilloses. De la mateixa manera que la definició de la PR s'ha abordat des de diferents perspectives, la seua avaluació també s'ha tractat des de diferents punts de vista i constitueix hui dia un desafiament per a investigadors i professionals, per la qual cosa no s'ha trobat un consens clar quant a l'existència d'una mesura validada per a la PR. L'avaluació de la PR s'ha realitzat tradicionalment mitjançant qüestionaris; no obstant això, s'ha demostrat que aquestes mesures presenten diverses limitacions que poden conduir a resultats alterats. Les tasques comportamentals sorgeixen com una solució alternativa capaç de superar algunes d'aquestes barreres. En canvi, la seua capacitat de transferència a situacions de la vida real sembla ser limitada. La realitat virtual (RV) permet recrear situacions reals simulades per a realitzar avaluacions basades en l'acompliment. La RV presenta nombrosos avantatges que poden aportar beneficis per a l'avaluació dels comportaments humans, ja que aporta una major immersió, fidelitat i un major nivell d'implicació que els mètodes d'avaluació tradicionals, i nombrosos treballs en el camp de la psicologia aplicada i la neurociència organitzacional han avalat el seu ús per a avaluació humana. En aquesta investigació, proposem la RV com a tecnologia capaç de facilitar l'estudi dels processos de la PR, aprofitant les seues nombroses possibilitats, que es poden resumir com: simulació de situacions de risc realistes, interaccions naturals amb l'entorn virtual, inclusió de mesures implícites per a avaluació oculta i mesurament fisiològic en temps real. Aquesta tesi proporciona aportacions a la definició de la PR, particularment en la identificació de quins factors constitueixen aquest complex procés. A més, investiga l'ús de la RV immersiva en la investigació del comportament humà, específicament per a l'avaluació de la PR, proporcionant premisses de disseny d'entorns virtuals per a l'avaluació dels constructes psicològics identificats com a determinants per a definir la PR. Finalment, analitza la validesa de la RV en combinació amb mesures fisiològiques per a l'avaluació de la PR de manera implícita.
[EN] Understanding human behaviour in risk situations, how individual and external factors influence our decisions and to what extent it is possible to influence and modify our behaviours, constitutes a challenge both for scientists and for society in general. From the perspective of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), as well as in numerous fields such as sociology of finance, this topic has important implications since risk situations are a common aspect in various domains of our lives. Risk taking (RT) is part of the decision-making process in uncertain situations, in which the probability of each positive or negative consequence is known in advance. Although the concept of RT is well defined in the literature, it has been approached from different perspectives, so that the factors that have been proposed to explain or moderate RT are also very diverse. Focusing on the individual factors - cognitive and emotional processes - that influence RT, these may affect how hazardous situations are addressed in two different ways. First, they can skew the perception of a situation, so that an adequate evaluation is not carried out and therefore this leads to biased behaviors. Second, these factors shape a certain general propensity towards risk in humans, so that they may or may not be attracted to potentially dangerous situations. In the same way that the definition of RT has been approached from different perspectives, the evaluation of RT has also been treated from different points of view and nowadays constitutes a challenge for researchers and practitioners, so that a clear consensus has not been found regarding the existence of a validated measure for RT. RT evaluation has traditionally been carried out using questionnaires; however, it has been demonstrated that these measures present various limitations that can lead to altered results. Behavioural tasks emerge as an alternative solution capable of overcoming some of these boundaries. Instead, their ability to transference to real life situations appears to be limited. Virtual reality (VR) enables recreating real-simulated situations to carry out performance-based assessments. VR presents numerous advantages that can provide benefits for the evaluation of human behaviours, since it provides greater immersion, fidelity and a higher level of involvement than traditional evaluation methods, and numerous works in the field of applied psychology and organizational neuroscience have endorsed its use for human assessment. In this investigation, we propose VR as technology capable of facilitating the study of RT processes, taking advantage of its numerous possibilities, which can be resumed as: simulation of realistic risk situations, natural interactions with the virtual environment, inclusion of implicit measures for stealth assessment and physiological real-time measurement. This thesis provides novel contributions to the definition of RT, particularly in the identification of which factors constitute this complex process. Moreover, it investigates the use of immersive VR in human behaviour research, specifically for RT assessment, providing design premises of virtual environments for the evaluation of the psychological constructs identified as determinants to define RT. Finally, it analyses the validity of VR in combination with physiological measures for the evaluation of RT in an implicit way.
Contrato predoctoral FPI (BES-2017-079857). Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Madrid, Spain).
Juan Ripoll, CD. (2021). Virtual reality environments for the study of decision-making processes in risky contexts through the use of physiological measures and behavioural responses [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/171236
TESIS
Compendio

The use of autonomous robots in our society is increasing every day and a robot is no longer seen as a tool but as a team member. The robots are now working side by side with us and provide assistance during dangerous operations where humans otherwise are at risk. This development has in turn increased the need of robots with more human-awareness. Therefore, this master thesis aims at contributing to the enhancement of human-aware robotics. Specifically, we are investigating the possibilities of equipping autonomous robots with the capability of assessing and detecting activities in human teams. This capability could, for instance, be used in the robot's reasoning and planning components to create better plans that ultimately would result in improved human-robot teamwork performance. we propose to improve existing teamwork activity recognizers by adding intangible features, such as stress, motivation and focus, originating from human behavior models. Hidden markov models have earlier been proven very efficient for activity recognition and have therefore been utilized in this work as a method for classification of behaviors. In order for a robot to provide effective assistance to a human team it must not only consider spatio-temporal parameters for team members but also the psychological.To assess psychological parameters this master thesis suggests to use the body signals of team members. Body signals such as heart rate and skin conductance. Combined with the body signals we investigate the possibility of using System Dynamics models to interpret the current psychological states of the human team members, thus enhancing the human-awareness of a robot.
Användningen av autonoma robotar i vårt samhälle ökar varje dag och en robot ses inte längre som ett verktyg utan som en gruppmedlem. Robotarna arbetar nu sida vid sida med oss och ger oss stöd under farliga arbeten där människor annars är utsatta för risker. Denna utveckling har i sin tur ökat behovet av robotar med mer människo-medvetenhet. Därför är målet med detta examensarbete att bidra till en stärkt människo-medvetenhet hos robotar. Specifikt undersöker vi möjligheterna att utrusta autonoma robotar med förmågan att bedöma och upptäcka olika beteenden hos mänskliga lag. Denna förmåga skulle till exempel kunna användas i robotens resonemang och planering för att ta beslut och i sin tur förbättra samarbetet mellan människa och robot. Vi föreslår att förbättra befintliga aktivitetsidentifierare genom att tillföra förmågan att tolka immateriella beteenden hos människan, såsom stress, motivation och fokus. Att kunna urskilja lagaktiviteter inom ett mänskligt lag är grundläggande för en robot som ska vara till stöd för laget. Dolda markovmodeller har tidigare visat sig vara mycket effektiva för just aktivitetsidentifiering och har därför använts i detta arbete. För att en robot ska kunna ha möjlighet att ge ett effektivt stöd till ett mänskligtlag måste den inte bara ta hänsyn till rumsliga parametrar hos lagmedlemmarna utan även de psykologiska. För att tyda psykologiska parametrar hos människor förespråkar denna masteravhandling utnyttjandet av mänskliga kroppssignaler. Signaler så som hjärtfrekvens och hudkonduktans. Kombinerat med kroppenssignalerar påvisar vi möjligheten att använda systemdynamiksmodeller för att tolka immateriella beteenden, vilket i sin tur kan stärka människo-medvetenheten hos en robot.

The thesis work was conducted in Stockholm, Kista at the department of Informatics and Aero System at Swedish Defence Research Agency.

Psychologists have used biometric data since the early 1900s to analyze the emotional responses of such subjects as students, patients with autism, and adults suffering from stress. Biometric data, the recording of physiological responses such as galvanic skin response, heart rate, and eye blinking frequency, shows peaks in emotional response to stimuli in a human’s environment. Galvanic skin response (GSR) is the most potent form of biometric data used for the study of emotional arousal. GSR, if studied in tandem with stimuli, can help researchers identify events in a subject’s environment that trigger emotion. GSR has been used to analyze responses to performance arts, but these studies are typically performed in controlled environments using video-taped performances and not under live performance conditions. Furthermore, this research is more often conducted using dance and not theatre, and often the material studied is less than ½ hour in length. This study combines techniques from several prominent studies of GSR for performing arts response research and applies them to the analysis of a 1 and ½ hour theatrical performance. GSR data is collected from six audience members during live performances of this theatrical work and the subjects are interviewed based on their galvanic skin response recorded during the play. The results of the analysis and interviews are reported to the director and design team of the play in order to inform them of the emotional impact of their work. Such information holds the potential to inform the creative team’s future play-making processes.
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碩士
國立成功大學
資訊工程學系
107
In this work, we proposed a novel hybrid neural network based on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) signal for emotion recognition. Our method can recognize nine kinds of arousal label and nine kinds of valence label with the accuracy 86.18% and 78.25%, respectively. To recognize the user emotion during experiencing the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) systems, we designed a real-time emotion recognition system based on our proposed model, which can help improve user experience.

碩士
元智大學
通訊工程學系
97
This paper presents a system for emotion recognition using two physiological signals, including photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals and galvanic skin response (GSR). We propose two novel methods for detecting the significant points in photoplethysmographic signals (diastolic trough, systolic peak, dicrotic notch, and dicrotic peak.) Firstly, the method named asymmetric multibandwidth mane-shift extremes seeking provides the ability for detecting maximum and minimum modes in time series signals. Secondly, the method named regression difference bendpoint detection provides a fast and simplified way for locating the dicrotic notch and dicrotic peak. In addition, multiscale entropy analysis is adopted to extract the features from GSR signals. Using fewer physiological signals and significant features with emotional responses are the main ideas in our recognition system. Ten subjects join this experiment and 29 features obtained from the two bio-signals with one person. Support vector machine was used for the classifications. The recognition rate achieved 98%.

Mental stress/workload is now considered as an important element that affects design creativity. Many physiological measures such as Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electromyogram (EMG), Blood Pressure (BP), Skin Temperature (ST), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), respiration rate (RIP) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) are used to identify mental stress level (Karthikeyan, Murugappan, & Yaacob, 2011; Lee, Jo, & Lee, 2011; Michon, 1966; Roscoe, 1992; Ryu & Myung, 2005; Wilson, 2002). This thesis aims to explore the relation between mental stress/workload and physiological measures and using those measures to identify the correlation between mental stress and design activities. One measure is Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The LF/HF ratio derived from HRV was used as an indicator of mental stress. The average value of LF/HF of different activities during a design experiment was computed and then clustered into seven levels which represent different levels of mental stress. The result showed that, during a cognitive design experiment, most of the activities in a design process were performed under low levels of mental stress and there was no correlation between types of design activities and levels of mental stress. Another measure is Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). Mean GSR of several design activities under different stress levels during a design experiment was calculated to investigate if it can be used as a reliable measure of mental workload. The result showed that mean GSR is significantly lower in baseline compared to working state and GSR in the pre-test resting state is significantly lower than GSR in the post-test resting state.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
A quasi-experimental design was undertaken to explore the possibility of utilizing electrodermal activity as a marker of intuitive decision making in nursing. This study compared 11 senior female nursing students to 10 female nurses with more than five years of nursing experience completing a clinical decision making task utilizing MicroSim© program software while measuring skin conductance response (SCR). The clinical decision making task chosen was based on the cognitive continuum theory. The somatic marker hypothesis is also a theoretical base for this study. This theory suggests that physiological markers are present during decision making. An independent t-test was conducted in SPSS comparing the total number of skin conductance responses generated and overall score in the card task and clinical scenario between the two groups. According to the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, the researcher’s definition of intuition, and the results of this experiment, SCR generation shows promise as a marker of intuitive decision making in nursing.

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Engineering, in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. January 2017 Johannesburg
It is well known that emotional stress has a negative impact on people’s health and physical, emotional and mental performance. Previous research has investigated the effects of stress on various aspects of physiology such as respiration, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance, skin temperature and electrical activity in the brain. Essentially, HRV, Electroencephalography (EEG), skin conductance and skin temperature appear to reflect a stress response or state of arousal. Whilst the relationship between respiration rate, respiration rhythm and HRV is well documented, less is known about the relationship between respiration rate, EEG, skin conductance and skin temperature, whilst HRV is maximum (when there is resonance between HRV and respiration i.e. in phase with one another). This research project aims to investigate the impact that one session of slow paced breathing has on EEG, heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance and skin temperature. Twenty male participants were randomly assigned to either a control or intervention group. Physiological data were recorded for the intervention and control group during one breathing session, over a short initial baseline (B1), a main session of 12 minutes, and a final baseline (B2). The only difference between the control and intervention groups was that during the main session, the intervention group practiced slow paced breathing (at 6 breaths per minute), while the control group breathed spontaneously. Wavelet transformation was used to analyse EEG data while Fourier transformation was used to analyse HRV. The study shows that slow-paced breathing significantly increases the low frequency and total power of the HRV but does not change the high frequency power of HRV. Furthermore, skin temperature significantly increased for the control group from B1 to Main, and was significantly higher for the control group when compared to the intervention group during the main session. There were no significant skin temperature changes between sessions for the intervention group. Skin conductance increased significantly from Main to B2 for the control group. No significant changes were found between sessions for the intervention group and between groups. EEG theta power at Cz decreased significantly from Main to B2 for the control group only, while theta power decreased at F4 from Main to B2 for both groups. Lastly, beta power at Cz decreased from B1 to B2 for the control group only. This significant effect that slow-paced breathing has on HRV suggests the hypothesis that with frequent practice, basal HRV would increase, and with it, potential benefits such as a reduction in anxiety and improved performance in specific tasks. Slow-paced breathing biofeedback thus shows promise as a simple, cheap, measurable and effective method to reduce the impact of stress on some physiological signals, suggesting a direction for future research.
MT2017

Innovations in computer game interfaces continue to enhance the experience of players. Affective games - those that adapt or incorporate a player’s emotional state - have shown promise in creating exciting and engaging user experiences. However, a dearth of systematic exploration into what types of game elements should adapt to affective state leaves game designers with little guidance on how to incorporate affect into their games. We created an affective game engine, using it to deploy a design probe into how adapting the player’s abilities, the enemy’s abilities, or variables in the environment affects player performance and experience. Our results suggest that affectively adapting games can increase player arousal. Furthermore, we suggest that reducing challenge by adapting non-player characters is a worse design choice than giving players the tools that they need (through enhancing player abilities or a supportive environment) to master greater challenges.

The use of a commercial powered wheelchair during daily activities by people with motor limitations provides autonomy, increasing quality of life. For people with more severe restrictions, specifically reduced handling, the use of the powered wheelchair may be compromised as they cannot control the joystick with the required ability. This work is intended to give these people the ability to drive comfortably and safely their electric wheelchair. This proposal for adapting a commercial powered wheelchair has essentially two main objectives. The first one is to allow people who cannot drive a conventional powered wheelchair because they have muscle weakness in their upper limbs to do so. So, and to facilitate the wheelchair navigation, three modes of operation are proposed. Therefore, the adapted wheelchair controller must able translate the new impulses provided by the joystick, depending of the user abilities, in direction commands. Driving the powered wheelchair continuously can quickly become a stressor. Thus, the second goal is to ensure that during the powered wheelchair driving, its user always remains in a calm state, avoiding harming their well-being and their health. It is thus proposed to insert a system for monitoring the emotional state of the wheelchair user. The primary purpose of this system is to alert its user when he reached critical emotional levels, which makes it impossible to continue driving safely. In this situation the wheelchair controller becomes responsible for the wheelchair command. The implementation of the stress detection system was based in the galvanic skin response and heart rate sensors. With the acquired information, it was defined the user’s emotional profile and evaluated several algorithms classification to predict new emotional states. This system was tested by two users groups. The first group consisted of drivers driving cars and the second group consisted of tetraplegic people driving their powered wheelchair. For people without disabilities, it was confirmed through biometric signals that each person reacts differently to the same situations. This difference is most striking in the response of skin conductivity. For tetraplegic people, we concluded and confirmed, that the sympathetic nervous system response cannot be measured by galvanic skin response. Several classification algorithms were trained for stress detection in realtime. For each user, the best classifying model was found. We conclude that the best models vary from person to person and also depend on the number and type of predictors used. This work results from the collaboration of the University of Aveiro and the Centro de Reabilitação e Medicina da Região Centro - Rovisco Pais.
O uso de uma cadeira de rodas elétrica durante as atividades do quotidiano por pessoas com limitações motoras proporciona autonomia, aumentando qualidade de vida. No caso de pessoas com limitações mais severas, nomeadamente com manipulação reduzida, a utilização da cadeira de rodas elétricas pode estar comprometida, pois não conseguem controlar o joystick com a destreza necessária. Este trabalho pretende proporcionar a essas pessoas a possibilidade de conduzir a sua cadeira de rodas elétrica de uma forma confortável e segura. Esta proposta de adaptação de uma cadeira de rodas elétrica tem essencialmente dois grandes objetivos. O primeiro é permitir a pessoas que não conseguem conduzir uma cadeira de rodas elétrica convencional por sofrerem de fraqueza muscular nos membros superiores, o comecem a fazer. Assim, para facilitar a condução da cadeira, propõem-se três modos de operação. Além disso, o controlador da cadeira adptada vai ter que ter a capacidade de interpretar os novos impulsos dados no joystick, que dependem das capacidades de manipulação de cada utilizador, em comandos de direção. A condução da cadeira de forma consecutiva pode-se tornar rapidamente um fator de stress. Assim, o segundo objetivo ´e garantir que, enquanto a pessoa conduz a cadeira se mantenha sempre num estado calmo, evitando prejudicar o seu bem-estar e consecutivamente, a sua saúde. E assim proposto a integração de um sistema de monitorização do seu estado emocional durante a condução da cadeira. Este sistema tem como principal objetivo alertar o utilizador que este atingiu níveis emocionais críticos que inviabilizam a continuação da condução em segurança. Nesta situação, quem passa a ficar responsável pelo comando da cadeira é o próprio controlador da cadeira. A implementação do sistema baseou-se no uso de sensores de resposta galvânica e de batimento cardíaco. Com a informação adquirida por estes sensores, definiu-se o conceito de perfil emocional do utilizador e foram avaliados algoritmos de classificação de stress capazes de prever diferentes estados emocionais. Este sistema foi testado por dois grupos de utilizadores. O primeiro grupo foi composto por condutores a conduzirem automóveis e o segundo grupo foi composto por pessoas tetraplégicas, a conduzirem as cadeiras de rodas elétrica pessoais. Para pessoas sem deficiência confirmou-se, através dos sinais biométricos, que cada pessoa reage de forma diferente perante as mesmas situações. Esta diferença é mais flagrante na resposta da condutividade da pele. No que diz às pessoas tetraplégicas, confirmou-se que a resposta do sistema nervoso simpático não pode ser medida através da resposta galvânica da pele. Para a implementação da deteção de stress em tempo real foram usados diversos algoritmos de classificação. Para cada utilizador, foi encontrado o melhor modelo de classificação. Conclui-se que os melhores modelos variam de pessoa para pessoa e que também dependem do número e tipo de preditores utilizados. Este trabalho resulta da colaboração entre a Universidade de Aveiro e o Centro de Medicina de Reabilitação da Região Centro - Rovisco Pais.
Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrotécnica

Effective game music is typically adaptive, interactive, or both. Changes in game music are usually influenced by the current state of the game or the actions of the player. To provide another dimension of interactivity, it would be useful to know the affective state of the human player. Biosignals are continuous signals generated by a person that can be measured over time, and have been shown to reflect affective state. This project demonstrates that control signals can be gathered from the player and mapped to musical parameters. Using a heart rate sensor and galvanic skin response sensor built from open source designs, we have used biosignals to control music playback while playing four games from different genres. A system for controlling game music with biosignals is computationally cheap, and can provide data that is useful to other game systems. The prototype developed for this project is basic, but with further research and development, we believe such a system will greatly improve the immersive experience of video games by involving the player on a new level.
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Due to the intrauterine environment required to maintain pregnancy it may be that neonatal animals are born type-2 immune response (IR) biased, which consequently may increase susceptibility to certain infectious and immune mediated diseases, such as allergy. Recently, the prevalence of both allergic and autoimmune diseases has increased, leading to the development of the hygiene hypothesis. The hypothesis states that lack of early environmental stimulus leading to inappropriate development and bias in IR, may contribute to this increase. The objectives of this thesis, therefore, were to: (a) Determine the IR bias of neonatal pigs. (b) Investigate the effect of heat-killed Escherichia coli, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and muramyl dipeptide (MDP) on the IR phenotype and the frequency of allergy in pigs sensitized to the egg white allergen ovomucoid (Ovm). (c) Establish IR phenotypes of pigs allergic or clinically tolerant to Ovm. Immune response bias was determined using an established phenotyping protocol and compared between two groups of pigs, (A) and (B). A difference in IR bias was observed. Bias in IR was not consistently towards type-2. Increase in indicators of type-1 IR, were greater in A and the frequency of type-2 IR correlates were greater in B. It’s likely that unidentified environmental variables may have induced this change, although etiology was not pursued. Treatment with heat-killed Escherichia coli, LPS and MDP had an effect on IR bias and frequency of allergy. Muramyl dipeptide-treatments promoted type-2 bias and were associated with increased frequency of allergy. Pre-treatment with E. coli did not affect allergic frequency, but did elicit the production of a relatively balanced allergen-specific IR phenotype. Lipopolysaccharide-pre-treatment was associated with decreased frequency of allergy. Correlates of an allergic IR phenotype in pigs were also established. The measurement of allergen-specific IgG, IgG1 and/or IgE activity and evaluation of late-phase intradermal skin tests were proposed to be useful in identifying allergic IR phenotypes. This thesis emphasizes the importance of considering the potential for variation in IR in terms of pig health and experimental reproducibility. Further, given the physiological similarities of pigs and humans, these findings may be extended to studies of food allergy in humans.
NSERC, OMAFRA, Ontario Pork, AllerGen NCE

Simulation-based training has gained widespread attention recently as a response to drawbacks associated with traditional training approaches, such as high training costs (instructors, equipment, etc.), high risks (e.g. pilot training), and ethical issues (e.g. medical training), as well as a lack of availability of certain training environments (e.g. space exploration). Apart from their target training domains, many of aspects of simulations differ, such as their degree of physical realism (fidelity), scenarios (e.g. story), and pedagogical aspects (e.g. after-action reviews and collaborative learning). Among those aspects, designers have mostly focused on developing high-fidelity simulations with the expectation of increasing the effectiveness of training. However, some authors suggest that the above belief is a myth as researchers have failed to identify a linear relationship between the (physical) fidelity and training effectiveness of simulations.  Most researchers have therefore evaluated the correspondence between the behaviours of trainees in both real world and simulated contexts, however, the existing methods of simulation validation using behavioural measures have a number of drawbacks, such as the fact that they do not address certain complex phenomena of skills acquisition. Bridging the above knowledge gap, this research reports on empirical investigations using an improved methodology for validating training simulations. This research includes an investigation of the user experience of trainees, with respect to the acceptance of virtual scenarios provoking a similar psychophysiological response as in real world scenarios, and the training potential of simulations with respect to the positive transfer of training from a simulator to real world operational contexts. The most prominent features of the proposed methodology include the use of psychophysiological measures in addition to traditional behavioural measures and the use of natural (quasi-) experiments. Moreover, its conceptual framework was influenced by contemporary theories in cognitive science (e.g. constructivism and embodied cognition). The results of this research have several important theoretical and methodological implications, involving, for example, the dependency of the effectiveness of simulations on the perceived realism of trainees, which is more embodied than has been predicted by previous researchers, and the requirement of several different types/levels of adaptive training experience, depending on the type of trainee.
Träning i simulatorer har på senare år fått ökad uppmärksamhet som en respons på problem och svårigheter förknippade med traditionella träningsansatser, såsom höga kostnader (instruktörer och utrustning, etc.), hög risk (t.ex. träning av piloter), och etiska aspekter (t.ex. träning av kirurger), likaväl som avsaknaden av träningsmöjligheter och miljöer (t.ex. forskning om rymden). Bortsett från vad som specifikt tränas så skiljer sig simuleringar åt i ett flertal olika aspekter såsom fysisk realism (eng. fidelity), scenarier (handling) och pedagogiska aspekter (t.ex. genomgång efter övning och kollaborativt lärande).  Bland dessa aspekter så har designers ofta fokuserat att utveckla simuleringar med hög realism med förväntningen att detta ska göra träningen mer effektiv. Litteraturen antyder dock att denna föreställning inte stämmer och att de flesta simuleringar med hög realism inte har lyckats uppnå denna målsättning. En slutsats är därför att det finns ett behov av metoder som kan validera potentialen hos simuleringar avsedda att stödja träning – redan innan dessa används. Enligt litteraturen så är utbildningspotentialen hos en simulering starkt kopplad till hur väl den psykologiska effekten en simulering har, stämmer överens med en verklig upplevelse. Forskning har emellertid identifierat ett flertal svagheter hos existerande ansatser för att validera simuleringar; de är oftast baserade på prestations- och/eller subjektiva mätningar; de har fokuserat en eller ett fåtal psykologiska aspekter; och de bygger på traditionella teorier. Baserat på resultat från studier av en kör-simulator presenteras och föreslås i denna avhandling ett förbättrat ramverk för utvärdering. De mest centrala egenskaperna hos det föreslagna ramverket inbegriper användandet av psyko-fysiologiska mått tillsammans med mer traditionella mått; det konceptuella ramverket bygger på samtida teoretiska ansatser (tex konstruktivism och kroppslig kognition); samt användandet av fält (kvasi-) experiment. Utöver uppnåendet av uppsatta mål för forskningen så har resultaten ett flertal teoretiska och metodologiska implikationer. Bland dessa återfinns beroendet mellan effektiviteten hos en simulering och den upplevelse av realitet som de tränade har, vilken är mer grundläggande än vad som rapporterats i tidigare forskning, samt kravet på flera och olika typer av anpassning av träningsupplevelse för den tränade för att förhöja potentialen hos träningssimulatorer.
SIDA Funded National e-Learning Centre Project at the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka