Buys Ballot Laboratory, Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands ; Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Utrecht Utrecht, Netherlands.
Buys Ballot Laboratory, Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
Front Neurosci. 2014 Dec 8;8:400. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00400. eCollection 2014.
In a multitude of research and therapy paradigms it is relevant to know, and desirably to control, the stress state of a patient or participant. Examples include research paradigms in which the stress state is the dependent or independent variable, or therapy paradigms where this state indicates the boundaries of the therapy. To our knowledge, no application currently exists that focuses specifically on the automated control of the stress state while at the same time being generic enough to be used in various therapy and research purposes. Therefore, we introduce GASICA, an application aimed at the automated control of the stress state in a multitude of therapy and research paradigms. The application consists of three components: a digital stressor game, a set of measurement devices, and a feedback model. These three components form a closed loop (called a biocybernetic loop by Pope et al. (1995) and Fairclough (2009) that continuously presents an acute psychological stressor, measures several physiological responses to this stressor, and adjusts the stressor intensity based on these measurements by means of the feedback model, hereby aiming to control the stress state. In this manner GASICA presents multidimensional and ecological valid stressors, whilst continuously in control of the form and intensity of the presented stressors, aiming at the automated control of the stress state. Furthermore, the application is designed as a modular open-source application to easily implement different therapy and research tasks using a high-level programming interface and configuration file, and allows for the addition of (existing) measurement equipment, making it usable for various paradigms.
在众多的研究和治疗范式中，了解患者或参与者的压力状态是很重要的，并且理想情况下可以控制这种状态。例如，在一些研究范式中，压力状态是因变量或自变量；而在一些治疗范式中，这种状态表明了治疗的范围。据我们所知，目前还没有专门用于在多种治疗和研究目的下自动控制压力状态的应用程序，同时，该程序还需要足够通用，以适用于各种治疗和研究目的。因此，我们引入了 GASICA，这是一款旨在自动控制多种治疗和研究范式下压力状态的应用程序。该应用程序由三个组件组成：数字压力源游戏、一组测量设备和反馈模型。这三个组件形成了一个闭环（Pope 等人 (1995) 和 Fairclough (2009) 称之为生物控制回路），不断呈现急性心理压力源，测量对这种压力源的几种生理反应，并根据反馈模型调整压力源强度，从而控制压力状态。通过这种方式，GASICA 呈现出多维和生态有效的压力源，同时持续控制呈现压力源的形式和强度，旨在实现对压力状态的自动控制。此外，该应用程序被设计为一个模块化的开源应用程序，通过高级编程接口和配置文件，很容易实现不同的治疗和研究任务，并且允许添加（现有）测量设备，使其适用于各种范式。
