Physiological Modalities for Relaxation Skill Transfer in Biofeedback Games

We present an adaptive biofeedback game for teaching self-regulation of stress. Our approach consists of monitoring the user's physiology during gameplay and adapting the game using a positive feedback loop that rewards relaxing behaviors and penalizes states of high arousal. We evaluate the ap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics 2017-03, Vol.21 (2), p.361-371
Main Authors: Parnandi, Avinash, Gutierrez-Osuna, Ricardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Algorithms
Arousal
Automatic control
Biofeedback
Biofeedback, Psychology - methods
Biological control systems
Biomedical monitoring
Breathing
breathing rate (BR)
Control theory
electrodermal activity (EDA)
Feedback
Feedback loops
Female
Games
Heart rate
Heart Rate - physiology
heart rate variability (HRV)
Humans
Male
Monitoring
Positive feedback
Relaxation - physiology
Relaxation Therapy - methods
Respiration
Selectivity
skill transfer
Stress
Training
Video Games
wearable sensors
Young Adult
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Summary:We present an adaptive biofeedback game for teaching self-regulation of stress. Our approach consists of monitoring the user's physiology during gameplay and adapting the game using a positive feedback loop that rewards relaxing behaviors and penalizes states of high arousal. We evaluate the approach using a casual game under three biofeedback modalities: electrodermal activity, heart rate variability, and breathing rate. The three biosignals can be measured noninvasively with wearable sensors, and represent different degrees of voluntary control and selectivity toward arousal. We conducted an experiment trial with 25 participants to compare the three modalities against a standard treatment (deep breathing) and a control condition (the game without biofeedback). Our results indicate that breathing-based game biofeedback is more effective in inducing relaxation during treatment than the other four groups. Participants in this group also showed greater retention of the relaxation skills (without biofeedback) during a subsequent stressor.
ISSN:2168-2194
2168-2208
DOI:10.1109/JBHI.2015.2511665