Assessment of stress in daily life for monitoring and intervention
Research Theme 2 (RT2) focuses on developing an advanced ambulatory assessment toolkit to quantify stress in daily-life using wearable technology. Six PhD students and two postdoctoral researchers contribute to: (1) responsible design standards for wearables, (2) a curated wearables database for researchers, (3)
lab-based validation pipelines, (4) methods to correct physiological stress signals for confounders, (5) machine learning models for affect recognition from sensors, and (6) cognitive tasks to assess attention, memory, and processing speed in daily-life.
Progress 2024
Responsible Design of Wearables: Key achievements include a narrative review on user perspectives, a position paper addressing challenges with consumer wearables, and speculative design efforts aligned with embedded values.
Wearables Database: The SiA wearables database (SiA-WD), cataloging 30+ research-relevant aspects of consumer and research-grade wearables, is complete and ready for public release in 2025, supported by a publication.
Validation Pipelines: Two validation pipelines for wearable stress sensors are nearing completion, incorporating VR-based tools, hardware, and protocols, with Institutional Review Board approvals in place.
Physiological Stress Signals: Methods have been developed to detect stress-induced heart rate changes correcting for posture and physical activity and speech.
Digital Phenotyping: Machine learning analyses recognize depression/anxiety from smartphone and wearable data. A submitted paper highlights the role of self-perceived cognitive functioning in depression severity.
Cognitive Stress Response: Two scoping reviews address cognitive tools’ usability and validity, while a pilot study explores passive sensing and ambulatory cognitive tasks in 20 participants. We submitted 6 papers and published 2 papers relevant to the themes above.
Technical progress includes completing the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) VR simulation, ongoing development of a high-altitude VR fear of hights scenario, Bluetooth integration for the VU-AMS device, and IMU-based posture and gait determination.
Cross-RT collaborations include the ’Christmas tree project’, optimizing HPA-axis measurements using gold-standard cortisol metrics.
Planned in 2025
- Develop responsible toolkit guidelines and speculative designs.
- Launch the SiA-WD (version 1.0) as an open-source platform.
- Validate low-burden wearables for large cohort studies.
- Provide proof of concept for new ambulatory monitoring technologies.
- Advance cognitive stress response research and toolkit development.
- Recruit a PhD student for contextual stress assessment validation.
