MindCare 2012 Abstracts

Full Papers Short Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 1
Title:

The Current State of EMA and ESM Study Design in Mood Disorders Research: A Comprehensive Summary and Analysis
Authors:

Meredith L. Wallace, Molly H. Carter and Satish Iyengar
Abstract: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and experience sampling methods (ESM) are becoming increasingly prevalent in mood disorders research due to their potential for capturing underlying dynamic mood processes that cannot be observed through traditional clinical visits. There have also been recent statistical developments that allow for innovative EMA/ESM-related research questions to be answered. However, even the most sophisticated statistical methods cannot glean accurate representations of underlying mood processes when the data are sampled inappropriately. Unfortunately, there are few resources investigators can use to make informed decisions about EMA/ESM study design. Thus, we perform a comprehensive summary of current EMA/ESMstudy design methods used in mood disorders research, explore the rationale behind study design decisions, and investigate the relationship between compliance and various study design features. Results from these analyses are used to suggest improvements for designing and reporting future EMA/ESM studies.
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Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Managing Data in Help4Mood
Authors:

Maria K. Wolters, Juan Martínez-Miranda, Helen F. Hastie and Colin Matheson
Abstract: Help4Mood is a system that supports the treatment of people with major depression through collecting a wealth of cognitive, psychomotor, and motor data, which can then be summarised and analysed further. Data is stored in functional units that correspond to treatment relevant entities using a custom XML DTD. As far as possible, observations and findings are coded using SNOMED CT to ensure interoperability with other applications such as Electronic Health Records.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

An Event-driven Psychophysiological Assessment for Health Care
Authors:

Silvia Serino, Pietro Cipresso, Gennaro Tartarisco, Giovanni Baldus, Daniele Corda, Giovanni Pioggia, Andrea Gaggioli and Giuseppe Riva
Abstract: Computerized experience-sampling method comprising a mobile-based system that collects psychophysiological data appears to be a very promising assessment approach to investigate the real-time fluctuation of experience in daily life in order to detect stressful events. At this purpose, we developed PsychLog (http://sourceforge.net/projects/psychlog/) a free open-source mobile experience sampling platform that allows psychophysiological data to be collected, aggregated, visualized and collated into reports. Results showed a good classification of relaxing and stressful events, defining the two groups with psychological analysis and verifying the discrimination with physiological measures. Our innovative approach offers to researchers and clinicians new effective opportunities to assess and treat psychological stress in daily-life environments.
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Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Study and Evaluation of Palmar Blood Volume Pulse for Heart Rate Monitoring in a Multimodal Framework
Authors:

Hugo Silva, Joana Sousa and Hugo Gamboa
Abstract: Within the field of biosignal acquisition and processing, there is a growing need for combining multiple modalities. Clinical psychology is an area where this is often the case, and one example are the studies where heart rate and electrodermal activity need to be acquired simultaneously. Both of these parameters are typically measured in distinct anatomical regions (the former at the chest, and the later at the hand level), which raises wearability issues as in some cases two independent devices are used; finger clip sensors already enable heart rate measurement at the hand level, however they can be limiting for free living and quality of life activities. In this paper we perform a study and evaluation of an experimental blood volume pulse sensor, to assess the feasibility of measuring the heart rate at the hand palms, and thus enabling the design of more convenient systems for multimodal data acquisition.
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Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Localized Electroencephalography Sensor and Detection of Evoked Potentials
Authors:

Tiago Araújo, Neuza Nunes, Carla Quintão and Hugo Gamboa
Abstract: The limitations of current electroencephalographs are unanimous and relate primarily to its low spatial density and assembly complexity for certain applications. In this paper, we introduce an innovative technique, capable to answer to some challenges created by those limitations. A localized, miniaturized and user-friendly electroencephalography (EEG) sensor was developed for signal acquisition in a bipolar montage, to be placed anywhere on the scalp. The low consumption, small size and high spatial resolution, compared with the standard systems, are the main features of the EEG sensor presented. With this sensor we acquired and analyzed spontaneous EEG activity and auditory evoked potentials which are relevant for the cognitive activity analysis. The developed sensor is an important unobtrusive tool for applications of mental health evaluation.
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Paper Nr: 7
Title:

A Mobile System for Treatment of Depression
Authors:

Pepijn van de Ven, Mário Ricardo Henriques, Mark Hoogendoorn, Michel Klein, Elaine McGovern, John Nelson, Hugo Silva and Eric Tousset
Abstract: This paper presents a mobile treatment system developed as part of the FP7 ICT4Depression project. The project targets the efficient treatment of minor and major depression. To this end, treatments that have traditionally been administered via relatively simple web-based interfaces, have been translated for use on a smart phone. The delivery of the treatments is supported by an evidence-based approach to patient progression and treatment adherence monitoring. The mobile system consists of a graphical user interface, biomedical sensors to measure the patient’s affective state, a medication adherence system, an activity monitor and a server based reasoning system to combine the various sensor data streams and obtain abstracted information relating to patient status and progression, thereby allowing for appropriate feedback and advice for both patient and medical staff.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

Applicability of Multi-modal Electrophysiological Data Acquisition and Processing to Emotion Recognition
Authors:

Filipe Canento, Hugo Silva and Ana Fred
Abstract: We present an overview and study on the applicability of multimodal electrophysiological data acquisition and processing to emotion recognition. We build on previous work in the field and further explore the emotion elicitation process, by using videos to stimulate emotions in several participants. Elec-trophysiological data from Electrocardiography (ECG), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Respiration (RESP), Electromyography (EMG), and Peripheral Temperature (SKT) sensors was acquired and used to classify the negative and positive emotions. We evaluate the emotional status identification accuracy both in terms of the target emotions and those reported by the participants, with recognition rates above 70% through Leave One Out Cross Validation (LOOCV) with a k-NN Classifier.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Towards Emotion Related Feature Extraction based on Generalized Source-Independent Event Detection
Authors:

Rui Santos, Joana Sousa, Carlos J. Marques, Hugo Gamboa and Hugo Silva
Abstract: Emotion recognition is of major importance towards the acceptability of Human-Computer Interaction systems, and several approaches to emotion classification using features extracted from biosignals have already been developed. This analysis is, in general, performed on a signal-specific basis, and can bring a significant complexity to those systems. In this paper we propose a signal-independent approach on marking specific signal events. In this preliminary study, the developed algorithm was applied on ECG and EMG signals. Based on a morphological analysis of the signal, the algorithm allows the detection of significant events within those signals. The performance of our algorithm proved to be comparable with that achieved by signal-specific processing techniques on events detection. Since no previous knowledge or signal-specific pre-processing steps are required, the presented approach is particularly interesting for automatic feature extraction in the context of emotion recognition systems.
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Paper Nr: 13
Title:

Brain Computer Interface and Eye-tracking for Neuropsychological Assessment of Executive Functions: A Pilot Study
Authors:

Pietro Cipresso, Paolo Meriggi, Laura Carelli, Federica Solca, Barbara Poletti, Dorothée Lulé, Albert C. Ludolph, Vincenzo Silani and Giuseppe Riva
Abstract: In this study we explored the use of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and Eye-Tracking (ET) technology both as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tool and to assess cognitive deficits. Specifically, we focused on the possible development of a neuropsychological battery for cognitive assessment based on the integration of BCI and ET tools. To preliminary test this approach we assessed eight healthy subjects with a widespread used cognitive task. AAC and usability of both instruments have also been evaluated with the aim to fine-tune the overall system architecture for clinical use.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 10
Title:

Real Time Dose-Response Assessment Tool Applicable in Exercise Therapy
Authors:

João Santinha, Joana Sousa, Hugo Gamboa and Hugo Silva
Abstract: In this paper we present a new tool, which enables the study of the dose-response relationship in real time, through the assessment of the level of physical activity using METs, and applicable in exercise therapy. A validation protocol for METs algorithm was performed, and METs values were obtained for various real-world and lifestyle and sporting activities. These values were compared with the results from the state-of-the-art work in the field for the same activities. Results have proven to be accurate, according to the model by Crouter, allowing the assessment of physical activity level. Our tool is intended for practitioners working addressing exercise activities and exercise therapy in a wide range of areas, one of which is psychology. According to the obtained results, the base hardware holds comparable performance with the advantage of being wearable and wireless, and thus convenient to be used on the daily monitoring of the patients daily routines.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

Sedentary Work Style and Heart Rate Variability: A Short Term Analysis
Authors:

Aleksandar Matic, Pietro Cipresso, Venet Osmani, Silvia Serino, Andrei Popleteev, Andrea Gaggioli, Oscar Mayora and Giuseppe Riva
Abstract: Emerging studies suggest that sedentary work style is often associated with deleterious physiological implications, including diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. However, only few studies linked prolonged periods of sitting with psychological responses thus the implications of sedentary behavior on mental health still remain highly unexplored. In this study, we investigated the relation between sedentary time and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) parameters, which are considered important biological markers of psychological processes including cognitive and emotional aspects. In this manner, we aim to explore factors that may indicate that sedentary behavior causes responses at psychological level. Recent progress in the sophistication and usability of wearable sensors offers the opportunity to continuously record ECG parameters and accelerometer data in daily-life settings, such as at workplace.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

The Role of Smartphones as an Assistive Aid in Mental Health
Authors:

John J. Guiry, Lisanne Warmerdam, Patrick van der Hilst, Heleen Riper, Pepijn van de Ven and John Nelson
Abstract: Recent developments in wearable sensors and smartphone technology have demonstrated the applicability and viability of such devices to the successful and cost effective treatment of mental illness, particularly depression. This paper describes a software toolkit and physical activity algorithms deve-loped at the University of Limerick that will be used to monitor and assist clinical professionals in analyzing physical activity and physiological data. The resulting information is used in the ICT4Depression project to deduce an indivi-dual’s mental state, and progression through mental illness. Two trials were performed to assess the algorithms and the resulting data are discussed.
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Paper Nr: 11
Title:

Wireless User-computer Interface Platform for Mental Health Improvement through Social Inclusion
Authors:

Ana Londral, Neuza Nunes, Hugo Silva and Luís Azevedo
Abstract: Loss of communication due to long-term neurological conditions leads to isolation and loneliness. Individuals in these conditions raise the risk of depression, since they can’t convey their needs and wants and loose their social networks. This paper describes the development of a wireless platform for user-computer interface, targeted at mental health improvement through communica-tion and social inclusion. We describe the proposed approach in the context of an input device based on a single channel electromyographic signal, although the use of other biosignals is discussed to expand users’ possibilities. Users’ needs in terms of user interface implementation are considered, concerning severe speech and physical impairments.
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