Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2010 May;57(5):1243-52. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2009.2038487. Epub 2010 Feb 17.
Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a sensitive index of sympathetic nervous system activity. Due to the lack of sensors that can be worn comfortably during normal daily activity and over extensive periods of time, research in this area is limited to laboratory settings or artificial clinical environments. We developed a novel, unobtrusive, nonstigmatizing, wrist-worn integrated sensor, and present, for the very first time, a demonstration of long-term, continuous assessment of EDA outside of a laboratory setting. We evaluated the performance of our device against a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved system for the measurement of EDA during physical, cognitive, as well as emotional stressors at both palmar and distal forearm sites, and found high correlations across all the tests. We also evaluated the choice of electrode material by comparing conductive fabric with Ag/AgCl electrodes and discuss the limitations found. An important result presented in this paper is evidence that the distal forearm is a viable alternative to the traditional palmar sites for EDA measurements. Our device offers the unprecedented ability to perform comfortable, long-term, and in situ assessment of EDA. This paper opens up opportunities for future investigations that were previously not feasible, and could have far-reaching implications for diagnosis and understanding of psychological or neurological conditions.
皮肤电活动（EDA）是交感神经系统活动的敏感指标。由于缺乏在正常日常活动和长时间内佩戴舒适的传感器，该领域的研究仅限于实验室环境或人为的临床环境。我们开发了一种新颖的、非侵入性的、无耻辱感的、手腕佩戴的集成传感器，并首次展示了在实验室环境之外对 EDA 进行长期连续评估的演示。我们评估了我们的设备与食品和药物管理局（FDA）批准的系统在身体、认知和情绪压力源下对手掌和远端前臂部位的 EDA 测量的性能，发现所有测试的相关性都很高。我们还通过比较导电织物与 Ag/AgCl 电极评估了电极材料的选择，并讨论了发现的局限性。本文提出的一个重要结果是证据表明，远端前臂是传统手掌部位进行 EDA 测量的可行替代方案。我们的设备提供了进行舒适、长期和原位 EDA 评估的前所未有的能力。本文为以前不可行的未来研究开辟了机会，并可能对心理或神经疾病的诊断和理解产生深远影响。
