In-situ measurement of electrodermal activity during occupational therapy

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61).Physiological arousal is an important part of occupational therapy for children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) but therapists do not have a way to objectively measure how therapy affects arousal. We hypothesized that when children with SPD participate in guided activities within an occupational therapy setting, informative changes in electrodermal activity (EDA) can be detected using iCalm. iCalm is a small, wireless sensor developed at MIT that measures EDA and motion, worn on the wrist or above the ankle. Twenty-two children (ages 3-10) with a clinical diagnosis of SPD participated. EDA was measured from the backs of the children's ankles. Concurrent video recordings allowed for comparison of therapeutic activities and children's EDA. Overall, we measured 77 therapy sessions. All measurements were in-situ, during regularly scheduled therapy sessions. Statistical analysis describing how equipment affects EDA was inconclusive, suggesting that many factors play a role in how a child's EDA changes. Case studies provided examples of how occupational therapy affected children's EDA. This is the first study of the effects of occupational therapy's in-situ activities using continuous physiologic measures. The results suggest that careful case-study analyses of the relation between therapeutic activities and physiological arousal may inform clinical practice.by Elliott B. Hedman.S.M

Thick psychophysiology for empathic design

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-155).Over the course of six years, I brought ambulatory psychophysiology into a variety of industries as a means of conducting design research. I looked at the stress of children in occupational therapy, the frustration of playing Hasbro board games, the thrill of driving a Google Self Driving Car, the confidence of shopping at Best Buy and Lowes, the excitement of playing LEGO Technic for the first time, the tension of watching one's first symphony, and the anxiety of talking about birth control. Working with stake holders within these settings I developed "Thick Psychophysiology," defined by four characteristics: 1. Psychophysiological data is quantitatively measured, 2. The research answers explorative, open ended questions, 3. The research measures external context, and 4. The research measures internal context. By combining ethnographic methods with psychophysiology, researchers can address the challenges of specificity that ambulatory, explorative research produces. Two case studies of preliminary design research are provided about the LEGO Group and the New World Symphony, showcasing how thick psychophysiology can help uncover customer's unarticulated needs. Once needs are uncovered, the challenge is how to motivate an organization to address those needs. Traditionally, designers use storytelling as a way to communicate research findings in regards to user experience, which in some cases can be ineffective in creating the needed motivation. The method developed in this thesis contains components designed to help influence organizational change. To test the effect psychophysiological data can have on organizational change, I delivered a survey testing four ways (conditions) of presenting findings: Storytelling (the most common method used by companies such as IDEO), Video-based (adding video to the story), and two conditions using Video and psychophysiology, varying how the physiological insights were presented (narrow vs. broad). Participants in the broad condition were told the skin conductance could mean a variety of things including moving, breathing hard, being stressed, or being excited. We analyzed the results of 143 LEGO employees. Participants in the broad skin conductance condition had a 47% chance of increasing the priority of the proposed initiative, whereas only 9% of participants in the storytelling condition increased the priority of that initiative (p<0.0 1). Post hoc analysis showed that when participants reported an empathic response to the skin conductance, they were even more likely to increase the priority of that broad skin conductance initiative (75%). These results suggest that, when compared to storytelling, presenting psychophysiological data can be a more effective way to communicate customer experience.by Elliott Bruce Hedman.Ph. D

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/‘proxy’ AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/‘proxy’ AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele