Life Science Hardware and Software

There is a major concern growing in the medical community that the ratio of health workers to population size is decreasing. This means that the number of available doctors and medical professionals is starting to become too small to handle the number of people needing medical help. Technologies are therefore being created to help bridge the gap that is being created. These “Quality of Life Technologies” (QoLTs) have been developed to help monitor the health of people. While these technologies have been able to provide physiological support to individuals, the same could not be said for mental symptoms. If QoLTs could move into the realm of psychology and self-therapy, they could help improve the mood and quality of life for patients. A group of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and the University of Lincoln recently published a paper that presents a machine learning approach for stress detection using wearable physiological amplifiers. To induce stress in participants, the researchers had them perform both a public speaking and cognitive task, which according to previous research these tasks caused the highest increase in measurable signals.

For their experimental setup, they used a BIOPAC BioNomadix BN-PPGED wireless transducer, hooked up to an MP150 data acquisition system, to record both EDA and PPG signals. They then used AcqKnowledge 4 software to extract both the PPG autocorrelation signal and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Their results provided accurate stress detection in individuals. Their analysis marks a good starting point toward real-time mood detection, which could lead to people improving their quality of life. One way they could improve their experimental setup however, would be to use the BioNomadix Logger. This device allows for up to 24 hours of high quality data logging allowing the researchers to analyze a subject’s data from when they encountered stressful situations outside the lab.

Social fear learning seems like a fairly straightforward subject. A person observes another reacting or expressing through either verbal or nonverbal cues that a stimulus makes them fearful or afraid. Surprisingly though, little is known about how individuals modulate their perception of the threat. Researchers hypothesized that understanding and shared emotional experiences with others (empathy) play key roles in this, but there are a few investigations that support it. Thus Andreas Olsson, Kibby McMahon, Goran Papenberg, Jamil Zak, Niall Bolger, & Kevin N. Ochsner sought to study the role that empathy plays in social fear learning. The experiment was set up across two stages; one that tested manipulating empathy appraisals and the other individual variability of trait empathy. Researchers enlisted a final sample of 47 men and 53 women who attended Columbia University. The first stage had participants receiving standard instructions that enhanced or decreased empathy and underwent a fear learning procedure; the second had individuals undergoing two observational learning procedures seeing whether the participants expected to undergo the same learning as a demonstrator. During the test stage, conditioned fear response was assessed through skin conductance response (SCR) which was recorded from a BIOPAC MP150 system with an EDA100C amplifier that monitors SCL and SCR data—BioNomadix wireless EDA or Data Logger with EDA transmitter are viable setup alternatives. SCR waveforms were analyzed with AcqKnowledge software for off-line analysis. The study found that subjects enhancing their empathy had the strongest vicarious fear learning over the other groups. The results showed that—especially in the strongly empathetic groups—a demonstrator’s expression during the experiment tasks could serve as social unconditioned stimuli for individuals to vicariously learn fear. Social fear learning thus depends on both a person’s empathetic appraisal and their stable traits. Thus an individual’s ability to learn fear from a social situation comes from not only their inherent emotional state but also from their appraisal of how others around them are reacting to the social stimuli.

 

There is a reason people call it “the Great Outdoors.” People often escape to nature to relax and recharge from the stressors of suburban life. Wilderness tourism has been and will probably continue to be very popular. Permit requests to hike the Pacific Crest Trail increased so dramatically following Cheryl Strayed’s book about hiking the trail and the film adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon that the spike is known as “The ‘Wild’ effect.” While there are many enthusiasts that spring for the harder challenge of higher altitude treks, many tourists head for the lower altitude camp grounds and hiking trails. This allows vacationers to experience the full benefits of wilderness tourism without the knowledge required to battle various ailments of high altitude expeditions. There is a certain comfort and relaxation that comes with a low altitude nature getaway. People often credit this to the state of mind that comes with being disconnected from modern life. 

A recent study sought to examine what physiological effects actually make people feel comfortable and relaxed at these low altitude camping areas. The authors Chen-Hsu Wang, Audrey Ming-Li Fan, Chen Lin and Cheng-Deng Kuo found that the real-effects of low-altitude tourism were not well documented. They decided to test three different low-altitude locations (30, 520 and 1080 MASL) and examined 49 healthy adults. Electrocardiographic signals were recorded using a BIOPAC MP System and analyzed using AcqKnowledge software. The study found that low-altitude wilderness tourism can lead to an increase in both Heart Rate (HR) and Blood Pressure (BP), and an increase in overall Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The paper notes that the greatest decrease in HR and BP and increase in HRV came around the 520 MASL mark. This shows that travel in low-altitude mountain areas may be good for physiological fitness in healthy adults for automatic nervous modulation and blood pressure regulation, especially in older individuals.  

This experiment should prove to make that next vacation nature-oriented, whether it is to Yosemite, Big Sur or anywhere in between. This study shows that wilderness trips are not only good for the soul, but has positive physiological effects for your body as well.