GASICA: generic automated stress induction and control application design of an application for controlling the stress state.

Benny Van Der Vijgh,Peter Werkhoven,Robbert J Beun,Maarten Van Rood

doi:10.3389/fnins.2014.00400

Benny Van Der Vijgh, Peter Werkhoven + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00400

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Abstract

In a multitude of research and therapy paradigms it is relevant to know, and desirably to control, the stress state of a patient or participant. Examples include research paradigms in which the stress state is the dependent or independent variable, or therapy paradigms where this state indicates the boundaries of the therapy. To our knowledge, no application currently exists that focuses specifically on the automated control of the stress state while at the same time being generic enough to be used in various therapy and research purposes. Therefore, we introduce GASICA, an application aimed at the automated control of the stress state in a multitude of therapy and research paradigms. The application consists of three components: a digital stressor game, a set of measurement devices, and a feedback model. These three components form a closed loop (called a biocybernetic loop by Pope et al. (1995) and Fairclough (2009) that continuously presents an acute psychological stressor, measures several physiological responses to this stressor, and adjusts the stressor intensity based on these measurements by means of the feedback model, hereby aiming to control the stress state. In this manner GASICA presents multidimensional and ecological valid stressors, whilst continuously in control of the form and intensity of the presented stressors, aiming at the automated control of the stress state. Furthermore, the application is designed as a modular open-source application to easily implement different therapy and research tasks using a high-level programming interface and configuration file, and allows for the addition of (existing) measurement equipment, making it usable for various paradigms.

Highlights

For various cognitive and affective research and therapy purposes, information on the internal stress state of patients and participants and, desirably, exerting control over this stress state, is important
We have presented GASICA, an application aimed at controlling the internal stress state in various therapy and research paradigms by online and continuous monitoring of the stress state throughphysiological signals
STRENGTHS Through the fulfillment of the requirements of the different components, GASICA is an application that presents several strengths: (1) Multidimensional The application allows to present different stressor forms, such as workload, emotion induction, and frustration. This allows to investigate the effects of these specific stressor forms, in isolation or in combination, in different paradigms

Summary

INTRODUCTION

For various cognitive and affective (neuroscience) research and therapy purposes, information on the internal stress state of patients and participants and, desirably, exerting control over this stress state, is important. It models the relations between the size of the stress response types selected in the previous section and the stressor game characteristics adjustments chosen in the preceding section These relations are expressed in rules that are fitted for each individual subject during the fitting condition of the application. In this manner the normalized weights sum up to one, resulting in a physiological activity state pc that is expressed in the weighted average standard deviations change from baseline, making interpretation more intuitive Calculating pc in this manner allows to combine multiple stress response types, takes personal variance in physiological signals of individual subjects into account and makes sure that the physiological activity state value is close to 0 at the beginning of each experiment, by using the baseline measurements.

DISCUSSION

LIMITATIONS