Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Physiol Meas. 2011 Oct;32(10):1529-39. doi: 10.1088/0967-3334/32/10/002. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
Measurements of blood volume pulse (BVP) and skin conductance are commonly used as indications of psychological arousal in affective computing and human-machine interfaces. To date, palmar surfaces remain the primary site for these measurements. Placement of sensors on palmar surfaces, however, is undesirable when recordings are fraught with motion and pressure artifacts. These artifacts are frequent when the human participant has involuntary movements as in hyperkinetic cerebral palsy. This motivates the use of alternative measurement sites. The present study examined the correlation between measurements of blood volume pulse and skin conductance obtained from three different sites on the body (fingers, toes and ear for BVP; fingers, toes and arch of the foot for skin conductance) in response to cognitive and affective stimuli. The results of this pilot study indicated significant inter-site correlation among signal features derived from different sites, with the exception of BVP amplitude, the number of electrodermal reactions and the slope of the electrodermal activity response. We attribute these differences in part to inter-site discrepancies in local skin conditions, such as skin temperature. Despite these differences, significant changes from baseline were present in the responses to the cognitive and affective stimuli at non-palmar sites, suggesting that these sites may provide viable signal measurements for use in affective computing and human-machine interface applications.
血液体积脉搏（BVP）和皮肤电导的测量通常被用作情感计算和人机界面中心理唤醒的指标。迄今为止，手掌表面仍然是这些测量的主要部位。然而，当记录充满运动和压力伪影时，在手掌表面放置传感器是不可取的。当人类参与者如多动性脑瘫有不自主运动时，这些伪影很常见。这促使人们使用替代测量部位。本研究探讨了身体三个不同部位（手指、脚趾和耳朵的 BVP；手指、脚趾和脚底的皮肤电导）测量的血液体积脉搏和皮肤电导之间的相关性，以响应认知和情感刺激。这项初步研究的结果表明，不同部位的信号特征之间存在显著的站点间相关性，除了 BVP 幅度、皮肤电反应的数量和皮肤电活动反应的斜率之外。我们将这些差异部分归因于不同部位局部皮肤状况（如皮肤温度）的差异。尽管存在这些差异，但在非手掌部位对认知和情感刺激的反应中存在显著的基线变化，这表明这些部位可能为情感计算和人机界面应用提供可行的信号测量。
