Collaborative Research: HCC: MEDIUM: Body as Intervention: Toward Closed-Loop, Embodied Behavioral Health Interventions

合作研究：HCC：中：身体作为干预措施：走向闭环、具体的行为健康干预措施

• 批准号: 2212352
• 负责人: Pedro Lopes
• 金额: $ 41.24万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2212352&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; HCC; MEDIUM; Body

There has been a drastic increase in stress and anxiety in the U.S., leading to a mental health pandemic. The need for effective mental health interventions is more urgent now than ever. By monitoring users' symptoms and their context (e.g., when someone is having an anxiety attack or experiencing cravings when passing by a bar) through wearables and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, mobile health (mHealth) technologies have the potential to transform mental health care. Despite the advanced monitoring capability, most existing mHealth interventions are digitization of traditional health interventions that do not deliver in-the-moment precision interventions in response to users' symptoms. As such, they inherit the limitations of their predecessors: the reliance on human motivation and the need for active engagement to be effective, resulting in limited adherence. To address this problem, the investigators will develop a class of novel solutions – sensory interventions – that can be effective without disrupting the users or requiring their active engagement. Sensory interventions are real-time closed-loop systems that directly act on the users’ bodies or immediate environment in response to users behavioral or physiological signals. Unlike existing solutions, sensory interventions combine applied engineering, signal processing, and machine learning to trigger interventions autonomously without user effort. The project will create three types of closed-loop wearable and IoT systems that use different modalities (vibration, airflow, and touch) to deliver sensory interventions in mental health contexts, such as cravings, workplace stress, and social stress. Ultimately, this project will enable mHealth interventions to be as rich, diverse, and personalized as mHealth monitoring solutions. This project will produce open-source software, hardware designs, and datasets. Collaborations with Cornell Tech Precision Health Initiative and with the University of Chicago Medicine and their clinical and industry partners will accelerate the dissemination of research through clinical evaluations and commercialization. Most existing mHealth behavioral health interventions, although coupled with advanced sensing systems to detect health needs, require conscious cognitive processing of information and active participation from users to be effective. This project will introduce and develop the concept of sensory interventions, a novel class of mHealth interventions that require little or no cognitive awareness to be effective. This project will investigate sensory interventions in four stages: (i) investigate and map modalities of external (electromechanical) stimuli to actuate neurological responses that produce a neurophysiological effect (ii) design and develop devices that enable these sensory interventions within the constraints of mHealth, (iii) determine physiological signals that are associated with target behaviors and integrate sensing systems, signal processing, and machine learning with sensory interventions to achieve closed-loop systems that automatically triggers intervention, and (iv) evaluate the efficacy, usability, and acceptability of the closed-loop systems (both in-lab and in situ). Throughout this process, the investigators will evaluate and characterize how sensory interventions impact three common stress-induced mental health challenges: substance cravings, workplace stress, and social stress. To intervene in substance cravings, the investigators will leverage heart rate biofeedback, develop a smartwatch-based system to deliver biofeedback using vibrotactors, and evaluate how such vibrotactile actuation mitigates alcohol and nicotine cravings. To intervene in workplace stress, the investigators will leverage breathing regulations, develop a fan-based system that alters the perception of airflow around the nose, and evaluate how such airflow entrains slow, guided breathing in the workplace. To intervene in social stress, the investigators will leverage affective touch, develop an arm-worn device that activates affective touch neurons, and evaluate how affective touch helps regulate social stress. Collectively, this research will enable a new class of mHealth interventions that are responsive to users’ health context in real-time and can be effective irrespective of users cognitive capacity or availability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国的压力和焦虑急剧增加，导致心理健康大流行，现在比以往任何时候都更加迫切需要通过监测用户的症状及其背景（例如，当某人患有抑郁症时）。通过可穿戴设备和物联网（IoT）设备，移动健康（mHealth）技术有可能改变心理健康保健，尽管拥有先进的监测能力，但大多数现有的移动医疗干预措施都是数字化的。传统的健康干预措施不能针对用户的症状提供即时的精确干预措施，因此，它们继承了前辈的局限性：依赖人类动机并需要积极参与才能有效，从而导致依从性有限。为了解决这个问题，研究人员将开发一类新颖的解决方案——感官干预——这种解决方案可以在不干扰用户或不需要他们主动参与的情况下有效。感官干预是直接作用于用户身体的实时闭环系统。或直接环境以响应用户的行为或生理与现有的解决方案不同，感官干预结合了应用工程、信号处理和机器学习，无需用户努力即可自动触发干预，该项目将创建三种类型的闭环可穿戴和物联网系统，这些系统使用不同的模式（振动、气流和信号）。最终，该项目将使移动医疗干预措施与移动医疗监测解决方案一样丰富、多样化和个性化。源软件、硬件设计、与康奈尔科技精准健康计划以及芝加哥大学医学及其临床和行业合作伙伴的合作将通过临床评估和商业化加速研究的传播，尽管与先进的传感系统相结合进行检测。健康需求，需要有意识的认知处理信息和用户的积极参与才能有效。该项目将引入和发展感官干预的概念，这是一种新型的移动健康干预措施，只需很少或不需要认知意识即可有效研究感官干预。分四个阶段： (i) 研究并绘制外部（机电）刺激模式，以启动神经反应，从而产生神经生理学效应 (ii) 设计和开发设备，在移动健康的限制内实现这些感官干预，(iii) 确定与相关的生理信号目标行为并将传感系统、信号处理和机器学习与感官干预相结合，以实现自动触发干预的闭环系统，以及（iv）评估闭环系统的功效、可用性和可接受性（均在实验室内进行）并在在整个过程中，研究人员将评估和描述感官干预如何影响三种常见的压力引起的心理健康挑战：物质渴望、工作压力和社会压力。为了干预物质渴望，研究人员将利用心率生物反馈，开发智能手表。基于振动触觉的系统使用振动触觉器提供生物反馈，并评估这种振动触觉驱动如何减轻对酒精和尼古丁的渴望。为了干预工作场所压力，研究人员将利用呼吸调节，开发一个基于风扇的系统来改变。为了干预社会压力，研究人员将利用情感触摸，开发一种可激活情感触摸神经元的手臂佩戴设备，并评估这种气流如何在工作场所带来缓慢的引导呼吸。总的来说，这项研究将实现一种新的移动健康干预措施，这些干预措施可以实时响应用户的健康状况，并且无论用户的认知能力或可用性如何，都可以有效。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命和已经通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。