Feedback Control of Human Stress with Music Modulation

Mental stress has known detrimental effects on human health, however few algorithmic methods of reducing mental stress have been widely explored. While the act of listening to music has been shown to have beneficial effects for stress reduction, and furthermore, audio players have been designed to selectively choose music and other inputs with the intent of stress reduction, limited work has been conducted for real-time stress reduction with feedback control using physiological input signals such as heart rate or Heart Rate Variability (HRV). This thesis proposes a feedback controller that uses HRV signals from wearable sensors to perform real-time (< 1 second) modulations to music through tempo changes with the goal to regulate and reduce stress levels. A standardized, stress inducing test based on the popular Stroop test is also introduced, which has been shown to induce acute stress in subjects and can be used as a testing benchmark for controller design. Ultimately, a controller is presented that when used is not only able to maintain stress levels during stress-inducing inputs to a human but even provides de-stressing effects beyond baseline performance.No embargoAcademic Major: Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Rhythmic Haptic Cueing for Gait Rehabilitation of Hemiparetic Stroke and Brain Injury Survivors

This thesis explores the gait rehabilitation of hemiparetic stroke and brain injury survivors by a process of haptic entrainment to rhythmic cues. Entrainment to auditory metronomes is known to improve gait; this thesis presents the first systematic study of entrainment for gait rehabilitation via the haptic modality. To investigate this approach, a multi-limb metronome capable of delivering a steady, isochronous haptic rhythm to alternating legs was developed, purpose-built for gait rehabilitation, together with appropriate software for monitoring and assessing gait. A formative observational study, carried out at a specialised neurological centre, supplemented by discussions with physiotherapists and neuropsychologists, was used to focus the scope on hemiparetic stroke and brain injury. A second formative study used a technology probe approach to explore the behaviour of hemiparetic participants under haptic cueing using a pre-existing prototype. Qualitative data was collected by observation of, and discussion with, participants and health professionals. In preparation for a quantitative gait study, a formal experiment was carried out to identify a workable range for haptic entrainment. This led to the creation of a procedure to screen out those with cognitive difficulties entraining to a rhythm, regardless of their walking ability. The final study was a quantitative gait study combining temporal and spatial data on haptically cued participants with hemiparetic stroke and brain injury. Gait characteristics were measured before, during and after cueing. All successfully screened participants were able to synchronise their steps to a haptically presented rhythm. For a substantial proportion of participants, an immediate (though not necessarily lasting) improvement of temporal gait characteristics was found during cueing. Some improvements over baseline occurred immediately afterwards, rather than during, haptic cueing. Design issues and trade-offs are identified, and interactions between perception, sensory deficit, attention, memory, cognitive load and haptic entrainment are noted

Artificial neural network (ANN) enabled internet of things (IoT) architecture for music therapy

Alternative medicine techniques such as music therapy have been a recent interest of medical practitioners and researchers. Significant clinical evidence suggests that music has a positive influence over pain, stress and anxiety for the patients of cancer, pre and post surgery, insomnia, child birth, end of life care, etc. Similarly, the technologies of Internet of Things (IoT), Body Area Networks (BAN) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been playing a vital role to improve the health and safety of the population through offering continuous remote monitoring facilities and immediate medical response. In this article, we propose a novel ANN enabled IoT architecture to integrate music therapy with BAN and ANN for providing immediate assistance to patients by automating the process of music therapy. The proposed architecture comprises of monitoring the body parameters of patients using BAN, categorizing the disease using ANN and playing music of the most appropriate type over the patient&rsquo;s handheld device, when required. In addition, the ANN will also exploit Music Analytics such as the type and duration of music played and its impact over patient&rsquo;s body parameters to iteratively improve the process of automated music therapy. We detail development of a prototype Android app which builds a playlist and plays music according to the emotional state of the user, in real time. Data for pulse rate, blood pressure and breath rate has been generated using Node-Red, and ANN has been created using Google Colaboratory (Colab). MQTT broker has been used to send generated data to Android device. The ANN uses binary and categorical cross-entropy loss functions, Adam optimiser and ReLU activation function to predict the mood of patient and suggest the most appropriate type of music

Evaluating devices for the measurement of auditory-evoked fetal movement

Determining normal and abnormal fetal function in utero in order to better predict which fetuses are at risk for adverse outcome is critical. However, the medical imaging tools that could assist with diagnosis are very expensive and rarely available in the developing world. In this study, we developed a prototype audio-motio-tachograph (AMTG), which measures fetal movements through the recording of abdominal wall deformations and tested it in Rwanda. First, we showed that AMTG detected fetal signals and that fetuses respond to complex acoustic stimuli. In order to improve the sensitivity of the device, we then measured whole abdominal wall deformations in an automated way using a lab-based 3D optical measurement system, in which fringes are projected and the deflections recorded with a camera. We found that abdominal wall deformations can be measured accurately with a non-invasive measurement apparatus. Overall, we conclude that wearable modalities provide a promising alternative assessment capacity in fetal research, especially in low income countries

The effects of musical tempo and non-invasive neuromodulation on autonomic control of the heart

Music is viewed as conferring health benefits, with tempo being the most influential parameter for altering human physiology and psychology. However, this work has used stimuli that manipulate multiple musical parameters at a time. Therefore, this thesis investigated the effects of musical tempo manipulations on cardiovascular autonomic function and subjective responses. Tempo manipulations comprised of stepped (sudden) increases and decreases in the speed of a simple beat pattern and heart rate variability estimated autonomic balance. Shifts towards parasympathetic predominance occurred for the stepped decrease in tempo stimulus but not for the stepped increase in tempo. When using more musically sophisticated stimuli, greatest vagal tone occurred for the slowest tempo (60bpm) of the stepped decrease in tempo stimulus. Autonomic function did not differ between an experimental (melody and rhythm) and control group (rhythm only). However, the latter experienced greater subjective arousal than the former. Growing interest in wearable technologies led to the testing of a wearable device that combined relaxation music with transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS). tVNS is a non-invasive neuromodulatory technique that administers small electrical impulses to the outer ear to stimulate the auricular vagus nerve. Both stimuli individually promote shifts towards parasympathetic predominance. It was anticipated that music combined with tVNS would elicit the greatest shifts towards parasympathetic predominance. However, the sham was equally as effective as music only, tVNS only, and their combination at altering autonomic activity. Autonomic responses to all stimuli employed in the thesis were predicted by baseline LF%. These findings suggest that music and wearables may be susceptible to placebo effects

WAVE: Brain-computer interface connection and biofeedback monitor

Over the last couple of years I have had the unfortunate experience of helping a loved one through multiple hospital stays. Anyone who has ever been in a hospital knows it’s not the most pleasant experience one can have. These experiences have lead me to the question of, how do I create a space to optimize and inspire the body, mind, and emotional centers to heal and engage support and community? By using empathy I can create solutions for the most extreme patients and use those solutions for other patients and other situations. Through interviews with ICU patients, nurses and doctors, a reoccurring theme clearly developed; fear, isolation and lack of communication. When a person is experiencing these emotions an optimal healing environment is not possible. What if we could create a healing space that could monitor a person’s mood and general well being? By monitoring mood and having alternative way’s to communicate we would create an environment that could potentially have faster healing times, lower amounts of medication usage and a happier work environment. It’s time to bring humanity back to healthcare. Healthcare needs to concentrate on more then just the physical; it should include the mental and the emotional as well. We need all three to line up in order to heal. I have invented a Healing Space to help accomplish an optimum healing environment. The first device to come out of it is Wave, a brain computer interface designed to use EEG technology along with biofeedback. This device will change the relationship between, doctors, patients and nurses by giving them a way to communicate and to talk about mental states

Emotional self-regulation of individuals with autism spectrum disorders: smartwatches for monitoring and interaction

In this paper, we analyze the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to have a pervasive, feasible and non-stigmatizing form of assistance in their emotional self-regulation, in order to ease certain behavioral issues that undermine their mental health throughout their life. We argue the potential of recent widespread wearables, and more specifically smartwatches, to achieve this goal. Then, a smartwatch system that implements a wide range of self-regulation strategies and infers outburst patterns from physiological signals and movement is presented, along with an authoring tool for smartphones that is to be used by caregivers or family members to create and edit these strategies, in an adaptive way. We conducted an intensive experiment with two individuals with ASD who showed varied, representative behavioral responses to their emotional dysregulation. Both users were able to employ effective, customized emotional self-regulation strategies by means of the system, recovering from the majority of mild stress episodes and temper tantrums experienced in the nine days of experiment in their classroomThis work has been partially funded by the projects “e-Training y e-Coaching para la integración socio—laboral” (TIN2013-44586-R) and “eMadrid-CM: Investigación y Desarrollo de Tecnologías Educativas en la Comunidad de Madrid” (S2013/ICE-2715). It has been also funded by Fundación Orange during the early stages of the project “Tic-Tac-TEA: Sistema de asistencia para la autorregulación emocional en momentos de crisis para personas con TEA mediante smartwatches

Using psychological and physiological measures in arts-based activities in a community sample of people with a dementia and their caregivers: a feasibility and pilot study

Introduction: Nearly all community-based dementia care studies employ either qualitative methods or use a combination of self-report questionnaire within mixed-methods research designs. Physiological measures, however, are rarely used in community-based studies with this population yet could provide valuable biological information for specific activities across the course of the dementias. Method: The study employed a within-subjects design to assess the feasibility of obtaining physiological measures (salivary cortisol and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)) alongside subjective measures of wellbeing and stress using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) during two community-based activiti of choral singing and art viewing, respectively, for People With Dementia (PWD) in the early to middle stages of impairment and their caregivers. Results: As anticipated, pre-post subjective wellbeing measures were relatively easy to complete by PWD and caregivers with no substantive difficulties observed or reported; significant increases in composite wellbeing, happiness and optimism were found. Continuous measurement of physiological data of HRV through a sensor-based device (Empatica® E4) was also found to be neither non-intrusive to participants nor disruptive to the interventions. Preliminary indications showed, for example, HRV significantly increased for PWD during choral singing, which may be associated with an increase in wellbeing. Measuring stress hormones through pre-post saliva samples, however, encountered several difficulties. Conclusions: The findings provide support for the feasibility of using non-intrusive sensor-based physiological measures alongside subjective measures for this population. Subjective measures may also give more confidence in interpreting directionality of physiological measures. A full pilot study is warranted to further investigate interactions of physiological and psychological variables in choral singing and viewing art activities but it is uncertain whether measuring stress hormones through saliva collection is feasible for this population and raised doubts about their use in a large scale trial. Holding particular promise is the use of sensor-based technology across different stages of dementia as well as across different activities