👤 Paula S Sterkenburg

While social robots show promise for therapeutic interventions, accurate assessments of (vulnerable) participants' affective outcomes require attention. The careful selection of devices for recording autonomic processes in response to stress-inducing and relaxing exercises is essential to ensure data quality recordings and participants' comfort. This foundational study assessed two commonly utilized devices to record electrodermal activity (EDA), indexed through skin conductance, concerning their sensitivity to stress-relaxation manipulations and social validity during a robot intervention: a sock with a Shimmer device and a wrist-worn Empatica E4. We aimed to select the most sensitive and easy-to-wear one as a precursor to a larger intervention study featuring mindfulness-based relaxation exercises delivered by an NAO robot. The findings, based on 28 healthy Dutch-speaking adult volunteers wearing both devices, revealed sensitivity in detecting EDA variations in arousal following stressful (increase) and Robot-delivered mindfulness-based relaxation (decrease) exercises, further corroborated by self-reports. Bland-Altman results suggested little agreement between the two devices and lower sensitivity for the Empatica E4. No statistically significant differences concerning wearing comfort between the Empatica E4 and the Shimmer devices emerged. Although both devices independently showed sensitivity to stress/relaxation manipulation, the choice for one or the other should be informed by the activities in the intervention. Show less

The juvenile variant of Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (CLN3 disease/Batten disease) is a rare progressive brain disease in children and young adults, characterized by vision loss, decline in cognitive and motor capacities and epilepsy. Children with CLN3 disease often show disturbed behaviour and emotions. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the behaviour and emotions of children with CLN3 disease and to examine the support that the children and their parents are receiving. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis was used to analyse patient files and parent interviews. Using a framework analysis approach a codebook was developed, the sources were coded and the data were analysed. The analysis resulted in overviews of (1) typical behaviour and emotions of children as a consequence of CLN3 disease, (2) the support children with CLN3 disease receive, (3) the support parents of these children receive, and (4) the problems these parents face. For a few children their visual, physical or cognitive deterioration was found to lead to specific emotions and behaviour. The quantitative analysis showed that anxiety was reported for all children. The presented overviews on support contain tacit knowledge of health care professionals that has been made explicit by this study. The overviews may provide a lead to adaptable support-modules for children with CLN3 disease and their parents. Show less