Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity

Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a direct readout of the body's sympathetic nervous system measured as sweat-induced changes in the skin's electrical conductance. There is growing interest in using EDA to track physiological conditions such as stress levels, sleep quality, and emotional sta...

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Main Authors: Subramanian, Sandya, Barbieri, Riccardo, Brown, Emery Neal
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130247
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author Subramanian, Sandya
Barbieri, Riccardo
Brown, Emery Neal
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Subramanian, Sandya
Barbieri, Riccardo
Brown, Emery Neal
author_sort Subramanian, Sandya
collection MIT
description Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a direct readout of the body's sympathetic nervous system measured as sweat-induced changes in the skin's electrical conductance. There is growing interest in using EDA to track physiological conditions such as stress levels, sleep quality, and emotional states. Standardized EDA data analysis methods are readily available. However, none considers an established physiological feature of EDA. The sympathetically mediated pulsatile changes in skin sweat measured as EDA resemble an integrate-and-fire process. An integrate-and-fire process modeled as a Gaussian random walk with drift diffusion yields an inverse Gaussian model as the interpulse interval distribution. Therefore, we chose an inverse Gaussian model as our principal probability model to characterize EDA interpulse interval distributions. To analyze deviations from the inverse Gaussian model, we considered a broader model set: the generalized inverse Gaussian distribution, which includes the inverse Gaussian and other diffusion and nondiffusion models; the lognormal distribution which has heavier tails (lower settling rates) than the inverse Gaussian; and the gamma and exponential probability distributions which have lighter tails (higher settling rates) than the inverse Gaussian. To assess the validity of these probability models we recorded and analyzed EDA measurements in 11 healthy volunteers during 1 h of quiet wakefulness. Each of the 11 time series was accurately described by an inverse Gaussian model measured by Kolmogorov-Smirnov measures. Our broader model set offered a useful framework to enhance further statistical descriptions of EDA. Our findings establish that a physiologically based inverse Gaussian probability model provides a parsimonious and accurate description of EDA.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1302472022-09-27T15:17:17Z Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity Subramanian, Sandya Barbieri, Riccardo Brown, Emery Neal Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a direct readout of the body's sympathetic nervous system measured as sweat-induced changes in the skin's electrical conductance. There is growing interest in using EDA to track physiological conditions such as stress levels, sleep quality, and emotional states. Standardized EDA data analysis methods are readily available. However, none considers an established physiological feature of EDA. The sympathetically mediated pulsatile changes in skin sweat measured as EDA resemble an integrate-and-fire process. An integrate-and-fire process modeled as a Gaussian random walk with drift diffusion yields an inverse Gaussian model as the interpulse interval distribution. Therefore, we chose an inverse Gaussian model as our principal probability model to characterize EDA interpulse interval distributions. To analyze deviations from the inverse Gaussian model, we considered a broader model set: the generalized inverse Gaussian distribution, which includes the inverse Gaussian and other diffusion and nondiffusion models; the lognormal distribution which has heavier tails (lower settling rates) than the inverse Gaussian; and the gamma and exponential probability distributions which have lighter tails (higher settling rates) than the inverse Gaussian. To assess the validity of these probability models we recorded and analyzed EDA measurements in 11 healthy volunteers during 1 h of quiet wakefulness. Each of the 11 time series was accurately described by an inverse Gaussian model measured by Kolmogorov-Smirnov measures. Our broader model set offered a useful framework to enhance further statistical descriptions of EDA. Our findings establish that a physiologically based inverse Gaussian probability model provides a parsimonious and accurate description of EDA. NIH (Award P01-GM118629) 2021-03-26T18:51:58Z 2021-03-26T18:51:58Z 2020-10 2020-03 2021-03-16T12:24:13Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0027-8424 1091-6490 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130247 Subramanian, Sandya et al. "Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, 42 (October 2020): 26422-26428. © 2020 National Academy of Sciences en http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004403117 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences PNAS
spellingShingle Subramanian, Sandya
Barbieri, Riccardo
Brown, Emery Neal
Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title_full Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title_fullStr Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title_full_unstemmed Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title_short Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
title_sort point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130247
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