applied
sciences
Article
Psychological Stress Level Detection Based on Heartbeat Mode
Dun Hu 1,2 and Lifu Gao 1, *






Citation: Hu, D.; Gao, L.
Psychological Stress Level Detection
Based on Heartbeat Mode. Appl. Sci.
2022, 12, 1409. https://doi.org/
10.3390/app12031409
Academic Editors: Andrea Barucci,
Chiara Marzi and Marco Giannelli
Received: 23 November 2021
Accepted: 26 January 2022
Published: 28 January 2022
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Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031409
1 Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Hefei 230031, China; hudun@mail.ustc.edu.cn
2 Department of Science Island, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
* Correspondence: lifugao@iim.ac.cn; Tel.: +86-0551-6559-1502
Abstract: The effective detection and quantification of mental health has always been an important
research topic. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a useful tool for detecting psychological stress
levels. However, there is no consensus on the optimal HRV metrics in psychological assessments.
This study proposes an HRV analysis method that is based on heartbeat modes to detect drivers’
stress. We used statistical tools for linguistics to detect and quantify the structure of the heart rate
time series and summarized different heartbeat modes in the time series. Based on the k-nearest
neighbors (k-NN) classification algorithm, the probability of each heartbeat mode was used as a
feature to detect and recognize stress caused by the driving environment. The results indicated
that the stress from the driving environment changed the heartbeat mode. Stress-related heartbeat
modes were determined, facilitating detection of the stress state with an accuracy of 93.7%. We
also concluded that the heartbeat mode was correlated to the galvanic skin response (GSR) signal,
reflecting real-time abnormal mood fluctuations. The proposed method revealed HRV characteristics
that made quantifying and detecting different mental conditions possible. Thus, it would be feasible
to achieve personalized analyses to further study the interaction between physiology and psychology.
Keywords: autonomic nervous system; heartbeat mode; heart rate variability; k-nearest neighbors;
stress recognition
1. Introduction
Human health is closely related to mental stress, which is subjective and continuously
variable. Thus, determining the onset, duration, and severity of stressful events is a difficult
and worthy research topic [1,2]. Furthermore, it is a challenging task for researchers and
clinicians to obtain biomarkers of stress and health [3].
Stress may lead to dynamic changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which
are characterized by an increase in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity and a
decrease in parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity [4]. Heart-rate variability
(HRV) features are considered to be viable physiological markers for evaluating ANS
activity when detecting stress [5,6]. HRV represents the changes in the time intervals
between consecutive heartbeats, which can easily be extracted from electrocardiograph
(ECG) signals [7].
Heart rate (HR) is controlled by the balancing action of the SNS and PNS branches [8].
The relative increase in sympathetic activity is related to an increase in heart rate, and
the relative increase in parasympathetic activity is related to a decrease in heart rate [4,8].
Sympathetic effects are slow, on the time scale of seconds, whereas parasympathetic effects
are fast, on the time scale of milliseconds [4]. Sympathetic effects can produce rapid changes
in the heartbeat interval, and these changes have significant individual differences [4,9].
Therefore, the ideal HRV index for stress detection must reveal the change rule of the
heartbeat interval at the shortest time scale while adapting to individual differences.
Over the past two decades, several HRV analysis methods (e.g., time-based, frequency-
based, and nonlinear measures) have been used to detect psychological stress levels [7,10]. In
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 2 of 14

terms of psychological aspects, there is no clear consensus on optimal HRV metrics, and many
indicators are highly correlated, resulting in a lack of interpretation clarity [7,11–13]. Another
major problem with HRV measurement is that there are significant differences between
individuals, and these differences are usually only visible at the group level [13–15].
McCraty et al. [16] analyzed the HRV power spectrum caused by different emotions
and found that positive emotions (e.g., appreciation and compassion) are related to a more
coherent heart-rhythm pattern, whereas negative emotions (e.g., stress) can negatively impact
the coherence of heart-rhythm patterns [16]. McCraty et al. [16] proposed a model of psy-
chophysiological coherence in which different emotions are reflected in specific heart-rhythm
patterns independent of HRV values. However, frequency domain analysis relies on longer
data (usually 5 min) and is greatly affected by abnormal normal-to-normal interval (NNI)
values caused by false detection [10,11]. Dalmeida et al. [6] showed that HRV time-domain
metrics (e.g., average of NNIs (avNN), standard deviation of the average NNIs (SDNN),
and root mean-square differences of successive NNIs (RMSSD) are important features for
stress detection. Pereira et al. [17] used a short time window to study various heart-rate
variability indicators for stress-level assessment and proved that time-domain analysis is the
most robust stress detection method. They used the four-stage Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)
as a stress-inducing protocol in which the avNN metric allows fine-grained analysis of stress
effects; it is the most reliable metric for identifying stress levels [17,18].
Despite the vast amount of literature on HRV analysis and its application potential
to the design of a stress index, a standard stress index based on ANS assessment does not
exist [9]. Hence, we propose an HRV analysis method based on heartbeat mode to evaluate
the dynamic changes in ANS under stress.
In this study, statistical tools typically used in linguistics were used to detect and
quantify heart-rate time-series structures. We focused on the variation between heartbeat
intervals and ignored the values of the interval itself. This method can reveal the variation
rule of heart-rate variability in a shorter time scale (m + 1 NNIs; in this study, m = 4), which
is less affected by the abnormal NNI value caused by false detection. The different beating
modes (bms) in the time series were summarized, and the specific bm related to different
individuals’ stress was obtained. Based on the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) algorithm used
for classification, the frequency of bm (bmNN) was used as a feature to detect and recognize
stress. We verified the feasibility of the method by comparing the recognition accuracy
of bmNN and the classical avNN index in the public driving stress database. We also
eliminated the impact of abnormal events during the rest period in the driving stress
database by observing the galvanic skin response (GSR) signal waveform to improve the
overall accuracy of stress assessment.
This paper is organized as follows. The proposed stress-level assessment approach
based on heartbeat mode is described in Section 2. Section 3 explains the findings of this
research and compares them with the classical avNN index. Section 4 discusses the achieved
results and compares them to previous stress detection methods, and Section 5 summarizes
the paper.

2. Heartbeat Mode-Based Stress Detection Algorithm

Before introducing the proposed heartbeat mode-based stress detection algorithm,
we discuss the drivedb database provided by Healey et al. [19] for PhysioNet [20], as it
pertains to our recognition strategy.

2.1. Drivedb Database and Recognition Strategy

2.1.1. Drivedb Database
The drivedb database contains a set of multiple physiological recordings (e.g., ECG,
electromyography (EMG), gastrocsoleus recession (GSR) of foot, GSR of hand, and respi-
ratory data) of healthy subjects from when they were driving along designated routes in
Boston and surrounding areas. The experimental design consisted of video information
and questionnaires used to assess stress levels during real-time driving [19]. The data
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 15

2.1. Drivedb Database and Recognition Strategy

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 2.1.1. Drivedb Database 3 of 14
The drivedb database contains a set of multiple physiological recordings (e.g., ECG,
electromyography (EMG), gastrocsoleus recession (GSR) of foot, GSR of hand, and
respiratory data)rest
indicate that of time,
healthy subjects
highway, andfrom
city when
driving they were
scenes driving
caused low,along designated
medium, and high
routes in Boston and surrounding areas. The experimental design consisted
stress levels, respectively, as identified by driver physiological characteristics [19,21]. of video
information and
In this questionnaires
study, used towere
only ECG signals assess stress
used levels and
to detect during real-time
classify stress.driving [19].
The influence
Theofdata indicate
abnormal thatfluctuations
mood rest time, highway, and city
on classification driving
results wasscenes caused
analyzed and low, medium,
interpreted while
andreferring
high stress levels,
to the respectively,
waveform changes asofidentified
the GSR by driverThe
signals. physiological characteristics
database contains 17 public
[19,21].
driving datasets. Among these, three (i.e., Drive01, Drive03, and Drive17) did not have
In this study,
complete onlyof
markings ECG
the signals
drivingwere used to detect
environment. Drive05 andlacked
classifythe
stress.
ECGThe influencefor
information
of the
abnormal mood fluctuations
first highway on classification
section, Drive09 and Drive16results
lackedwas analyzed
markings andfinal
for the interpreted
rest times,
while
andreferring
Drive14 andto the waveform
Drive13 changes
contained of the ECG
repeated GSR signals
signals.that
Thehaddatabase contains 17The
to be discarded.
remaining
public driving10datasets.
driving Among
datasetsthese,
were used.
three (i.e., Drive01, Drive03, and Drive17) did not
Marker signals
have complete were sets
markings of time
of the markers
driving that the experimenter
environment. Drive05 recorded
lacked theat the begin-
ECG
ning of different
information for the driving sections.
first highway EachDrive09
section, driving and
dataset was segmented
Drive16 into six
lacked markings fordriving
the
sections
final based
rest times, onDrive14
and environmental markers
and Drive13 and GSR
contained signals.ECG
repeated The signals
sectionsthat
were separated
had to be
by a buffer
discarded. Theof 50–200 s as
remaining 10 the stress
driving level transitioned,
datasets were used. during which ECG data were not
analyzed. Table 1 were
Marker signals showssets
how of the
timetimes after the
markers that10 thedriving datasets recorded
experimenter were divided
at theinto
driving sections.
beginning of differentFigure 1 shows
driving an example
sections. of thedataset
Each driving ECG, GSR,
was and marker into
segmented signals
six of
Drive08
driving in thebased
sections drivedb on database. The entire
environmental process
markers andincluded six driving
GSR signals. periods:
The sections Rest1,
were
City1, Hwy1, Hwy2, City2, and Rest2.
separated by a buffer of 50–200 s as the stress level transitioned, during which ECG data
were not analyzed. Table 1 shows how the times after the 10 driving datasets were
Table 1. Time and sample size after segmentation of the 10 driving datasets.
divided into driving sections. Figure 1 shows an example of the ECG, GSR, and marker
signals of Drive08 in the drivedb database. The entire process included six driving
Sample Size/Time (s) Total Rec.
Rec. Name periods: Rest1, City1, Hwy1, Hwy2, City2, and Rest2.
Rest1 City1 Hwy1 Hwy2 City2 Rest2 Time (s)
Drive02 77/900 Table 1.60/700
Time and sample size after segmentation
24/400 14/300 of the 10 driving datasets.
72/800 68/800 5000
Drive04 81/900 95/900 30/400 5/200 Size/Time 39/500
Sample (s) 51/700 4800
Total Rec.
Rec. Name
Drive06 102/900 108/740 Rest1 38/390
City1 Hwy1
29/350 Hwy289/710 City2 Rest2
92/870 Time (s)
4780
Drive02 77/900 60/700 24/400 14/300 72/800 68/800 5000
Drive07 89/900 84/800
Drive04 81/900 54/600
95/900 28/400
30/400 42/500
5/200 39/500 72/800
51/700 5100
4800
Drive08 64/800 49/600
Drive06 102/900 22/400
108/740 21/400
38/390 53/700
29/350 89/710 64/1100
92/870 4840
4780
Drive07 89/900 84/800 54/600 28/400 42/500 72/800 5100
Drive10 74/800 74/700 41/480 26/360 61/600 84/800 4800
Drive08 64/800 49/600 22/400 21/400 53/700 64/1100 4840
Drive11 66/870 70/830
Drive10 74/800 19/370
74/700 18/350
41/480 45/600
26/360 61/600 54/800
84/800 4800
4800
Drive12 56/800 Drive11
54/760 66/870 70/830
22/400 19/370
26/430 18/350
48/620 45/600 54/800
64/800 4800
4900
Drive12 56/800 54/760 22/400 26/430 48/620 64/800 4900
Drive13 90/800 135/900
Drive13 90/800
43/370
135/900
41/380
43/370
71/550
41/380 71/550
91/800
91/800
4700
4700
Drive15 69/870 51/660
Drive15 69/870 16/340
51/660 11/300
16/340 47/600
11/300 47/600 65/850
65/850 4500
4500

Figure 1. ECG,
Figure GSR,
1. ECG, andand
GSR, marker signals
marker of Drive08
signals in the
of Drive08 drivedb
in the database.
drivedb database.

2.1.2.
2.1.2. Recognition
Recognition Strategy
Strategy
Since the experiment was carried out on actual roads, the events encountered by the
drivers were uncontrollable, making it difficult to distinguish between the stresses caused
by driving tasks on the highway and the city [19]. This was further complicated by the fact
that the driving time on the highway was short (e.g., the driving time on Hwy2 in Drive04
was 200 s, and only five samples could be generated), and the data for each driving dataset
were limited. Unlike previous studies of stress detection based on the drivedb database
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 4 of 14

that used all driving datasets as training samples, we only required a single dataset for
training to detect stress. In this study, the k-NN classification algorithm was used to classify
two kinds of stress (rest/driving) to determine the bms most related to driving stress. We
mainly analyzed the results of the two categories (rest/driving) by comparing the bmNN
feature with the avNN feature.
Furthermore, the driver was not completely stress-free during rest, as the initial
discomfort of wearing the sensor, boredom, and anticipation of the beginning or end of
the experiment likely affected their mental states [19]. This phenomenon greatly affects
the authenticity of the classification results. Healey et al. [19] reported that the driver was
agitated during rest as he needed to use the bathroom, causing obvious fluctuations in the
GSR waveform.
The GSR represented changes in sweat-gland activity, which reflected the intensity of
the subject’s emotional state [21–23]. As the stress level of the driving environment changed,
the activity of the sweat glands changed accordingly. Increased skin conductivity reflects
high stress, while decreased conductivity indicates low stress [21,23]. Healey et al. [19,23]
proved that GSR is related to driving stress and provides optimal real-time correlations.
Although there were no detailed records of the data about unexpected events, infer-
ences were made based on the changes in GSR signals and classification results. If the
difference in stress levels between rest and driving states was clearly distinct, it was possible
to obtain high classification accuracy (>80%). However, if abnormal events caused emo-
tional changes during the rest period, the classification accuracy was likely compromised
(<80%). For the datasets with identification accuracy lower than 80%, the classification
accuracies for the driving and rest categories were recorded separately to determine that
the low total accuracy was caused by the rest category. Simultaneously, GSR signal wave-
form changes during Rest were observed, and the reasons for the changes in classification
accuracy were analyzed. Combined with the classification accuracy and waveform changes
of the GSR in the rest period, the datasets with abnormal mood fluctuations were deter-
mined. The classification results of the abnormal datasets were not counted. Thus, we
eliminated the impact of abnormal datasets in the driving stress database to improve the
overall accuracy of the stress assessment. Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the recognition
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 5 of 15
strategy for driving stress of the datasets in the drivedb database.

Figure Blockdiagram
Figure 2. Block diagram
of of
thethe recognition
recognition strategy
strategy for driving
for driving stressstress
of the of the datasets
datasets in the
in the drivedb
database.
drivedb database.

2.2.
2.2. ECG
ECG Signal
Signal Preprocessing
Preprocessing
The ECG signals
The ECG signals were processed
were usingusing
processed the QRS
the detector based onbased
QRS detector the Pan–Tompkins
on the Pan–
algorithm
Tompkins algorithm [24]. The interbeat (RR) interval sequence was the
[24]. The interbeat (RR) interval sequence was obtained from ECG signals
obtained of
from the
each driving section to extract the NNI value.
ECG signals of each driving section to extract the NNI value.

2.3. Sample Length Selection

To extract the characteristic value of the beating mode, an appropriate sample length
(L) was selected. In a previous study [19], HRV analysis was performed using time
 Figure 2. Block diagram of the recognition strategy for driving stress of the datasets in the drivedb
database.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 5 of 14
2.2. ECG Signal Preprocessing
The ECG signals were processed using the QRS detector based on the Pan–
2.3. Sample
Tompkins Length
algorithm Selection
[24]. The interbeat (RR) interval sequence was obtained from the
ECG signals Toof each driving
extract section to value
the characteristic extractofthe
theNNI value.
beating mode, an appropriate sample length
(L) was selected. In a previous study [19], HRV analysis was performed using time intervals
2.3. Sample
of 300Length Selection
s. In this study, 200 NNIs (L = 200, approximately 2–3 min) were chosen as fixed
sample lengths, and 10 NNIs
To extract the characteristic were
value ofadvanced
the beatingeach timeantoappropriate
mode, generate a new sample.
sample Table 1
length
shows the corresponding sample sizes for the different driving sections.
(L) was selected. In a previous study [19], HRV analysis was performed using time
intervals of 300 s. In this study, 200 NNIs (L = 200, approximately 2–3 min) were chosen
2.4. Feature Extraction with bmNN
as fixed sample lengths, and 10 NNIs were advanced each time to generate a new sample.
Table 1 showsIn this
thestudy, the NNI output
corresponding sampleof the for
sizes ECGthesignals wasdriving
different mapped to a binary sequence
sections.
using statistical tools for linguistics to simplify the dynamics. As shown in Figure 3, an
NNI time
2.4. Feature series with
Extraction length L = 200 can be written as {NNI1 ,NNI2 , . . . ,NNIL }, where NNIn
with bmNN
is the interval after the nth heartbeat. The NNI of each pair of consecutive heartbeats was
In this study, the NNI output of the ECG signals was mapped to a binary sequence
assigned a subscript of zero or one according to the decrease or increase in the NNI.
using statistical tools for linguistics to simplify the dynamics. As shown in Figure 3, an
NNI time series with length L = 200 can  be 0,
written
if NNasIn {NNI
≤ NN 1,NNI2,…,NNIL}, where NNIn is
In−1 ,
= NNI of each
the interval after the nth heartbeat.In The 1, if NN In > NNofInconsecutive
pair heartbeats was (1)
−1 .
assigned a subscript of zero or one according to the decrease or increase in the NNI.

FigureFigure
3. Schematic diagram
3. Schematic of the of
diagram mapping process
the mapping from the
process ECG
from thesignal to a 4-bit
ECG signal to aword.
4-bit word.

A total of m + 1 consecutive NNIs 𝑁𝑁𝐼 , to a binary sequence of length m, an

were mapped
0, if 𝑁𝑁𝐼
m-bit word. Each m-bit word𝐼 represents
= a
1, if 𝑁𝑁𝐼 unique
𝑁𝑁𝐼 fluctuation
.
(1) After
pattern within that time.
moving one data point at a time, the algorithm generated a set of m-bit words throughout
Athe
total
timeof series
m + 1 consecutive
that reflectedNNIs were mapped
the underlying to a binary
dynamics of thesequence of length
original time m,Different
series. an
m-bit dynamics
word. Each m-bit word represents a unique fluctuation pattern within that time.
produce different distributions of these m-bit words. Each m-bit word represents
After amoving
heartbeat onemode
dataand
point
wasatmarked
a time, with
the algorithm
the symbol, generated a set
bm. For an of word,
m-bit m-bit the
words
range of
throughout
values the
thattime series
bm (total 2mthat
bms)reflected
could take thewas
underlying
from 0 todynamics
2m − 1. Asofshown
the original time
in Figure 3, when
m = 4, the 4-bit word “0011” corresponded to bm = 3 (2 + 1), whereas the 4-bit word “0110”
corresponded to bm = 6 (4 + 2). In an NNI time series with length L, after the value of m
was determined, the times of occurrence for the different bms in that period were counted
to calculate the frequency of bm (denoted by bmNN).

bmNN = (the times of occurrence for the bm)/( L − m + 1). (2)

In this study, we chose L to be 200 and m to be 4; then, each sample with L = 200 could
statistically generate 16 (24 ) bms, corresponding to 16 values for bmNN. Additionally, the
average value of all NNIs (avNN, unit: s) in each sample was calculated.
Using the value of bmNN as the feature, the relationship between different bms and
mental states was further analyzed using the k-NN classification algorithm.

2.5. Classification
2.5.1. Classifier for Classification
The objective of this study was to analyze the correlation between heartbeat mode and
stress in the public driving stress database. For different samples in the driving dataset,
the bmNN values corresponding to the same stress should be closer. The classification
rules of the k-NN algorithm are based on the idea that data points of the same type will
be closer in the feature space [25]. Since the data for each driving dataset were limited,
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 6 of 14

and to intuitively explain the relationship between bmNN and stress, we chose the k-NN
classification algorithm. Here, the Euclidean distance and a k value equal to five were used
for the calculation.

2.5.2. Heartbeat Mode Analysis

To verify the changes in bm in different driving sections, the test dataset was not
selected from the same driving section as the training dataset. All samples were used for
either training or testing without deleting any data, to analyze the stress state of the entire
driving process as completely as possible. For the six driving sections, Rest1, City1, and
Hwy1 were used as the training set, and Rest2, Hwy2, and City2 were used as the test set.
The corresponding stress labels were “0,” “1,” and “2.” Label “0” represents low stress for
Rest, “1” represents medium stress for Hwy, and “2” represents high stress for City.
In this study, only one feature of the ECG signals (i.e., bmNN) and the simplest k-NN
classification algorithm were used to train the network with data from the first half of the
driving sections of each driving dataset. The network was then used to identify and classify
the stress levels of the second half of the driving sections of the corresponding dataset. We
mainly analyzed the results of the two stress categories (rest/driving) to determine the
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 15
optimal bm most related to driving stress. Figure 4 shows a block diagram of the heartbeat
mode-based stress detection for Drive08 in the drivedb database.

Figure Block
4. Block
Figure 4. diagram
diagram of heartbeat
of the the heartbeat mode-based
mode-based stress detection
stress detection forinDrive08
for Drive08 in the
the drivedb
drivedb
database.database.

2.5.3. ClassificationSteps
2.5.3. Classification Steps
The following steps
The following stepswere
werecarried
carriedout
outfor
forclassification:
classification:
1.
1. The single
The singledriving
drivingdatadataofofthe
the1010driving
driving datasets
datasets were
were first
first classified
classified on on
twotwo stress
stress
levels: rest or driving (0 \ 1 + 2). All 16 values for bm were traversed,
levels: rest or driving (0\1 + 2). All 16 values for bm were traversed, and the bm with and the bm with
highest classification accuracy was recorded as the optimal bm
the highest classification accuracy was recorded as the optimal bm for this round of of
the for this round
drivingclassification.
driving classification.
2.
2. For the
For thedata
datawith
withclassification
classificationaccuracy
accuracy higher
higher than
than 80% 80% among
among thethe 10 driving
10 driving tests,
tests,
classificationwas
classification wascarried
carriedout out after
after merging
merging all datasets.
all datasets. Similarly,
Similarly, all 16 all 16 values
values of bm of
bm were
were traversed,
traversed, andand bm bm
the the withwith
thethe highest
highest classification
classification accuracy
accuracy waswas recorded
recorded
and taken
and taken as as the
thereference
referencebm bmvalue
valueforforallallclassification
classification tasks.
tasks. ForFor eacheach round
round of of
classification,three
classification, threedifferent
differentfeature
featurevalues
valueswere were calculated
calculated (i.e.,
(i.e., avNN,avNN, reference
reference
bmNN,and
bmNN, andoptimal bmNN).
optimalbmNN).
3.
3. For data
For datawith
withclassification
classification accuracy
accuracy lower
lower than than
80%80%amongamong
the 10 thedriving
10 driving
tests intests
in Step
Step 1, the
1, the classification
classification accuracies
accuracies for for
the the
0 and0 and
1 +12+categories
2 categories werewere recorded
recorded
alongside
alongside the thetotal
totalaccuracy
accuracyofofeacheachdriving
drivingdataset.
dataset.Simultaneously,
Simultaneously, GSRGSRsignal
signal
waveform
waveform fluctuations
fluctuations during
duringRestRestwere
wereobserved,
observed,and andthe
thereasons
reasonsfor forthe
thechanges
changes in
in classification
classification accuracywere
accuracy wereanalyzed.
analyzed.

3. Results
3.1. Classification Results of Driving Datasets with Accuracy above 80%
We identified 10 single driving datasets and classified them based on two stress
levels. Six driving datasets (Drive02\04\06\08\11\13) had a classification accuracy of
more than 80% for the optimal bmNN feature value. Table 2 shows the classification
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 7 of 14

3. Results
3.1. Classification Results of Driving Datasets with Accuracy above 80%
We identified 10 single driving datasets and classified them based on two stress levels.
Six driving datasets (Drive02\04\06\08\11\13) had a classification accuracy of more than
80% for the optimal bmNN feature value. Table 2 shows the classification results of these six
driving datasets using different feature values. The samples in these six driving datasets
were merged based on the different driving sections and classified into two categories,
with a corresponding optimal bm value of 12. The “Total” column in Table 2 shows the
classification results. When bm equaled 12, the corresponding reference bmNN feature value
was used to classify all six driving datasets. We represented the results of the reference
bmNN feature in the second row under the 0\1 + 2 category and 0\1\2 category, whereas
the first row shows the classification results of the avNN feature; the third row shows the
classification results when the optimal bm value was used. Table 3 shows the average
values of avNN, reference bmNN, and optimal bmNN for the different driving sections of
Drive02\04\06\08\11\13.

Table 2. Classification results of Drive02\04\06\08\11\13 as two or three categories.

Accuracy (%)
Classes Features
Mean Drive02 Drive04 Drive06 Drive08 Drive11 Drive13 Total
avNN 76.1 70.1 68.4 91.0 26.8 100 100 70.9
0\1 + 2 bmNN/bm = 12 87.0 92.9 98.9 92.9 100 82.1 55.2 77.1
optimal bmNN 93.7 92.9 100 94.8 100 83.8 90.6 77.1
avNN 59.1 50.6 63.2 61.0 13.8 79.5 86.2 57.9
0\1\2 bmNN/bm = 12 69.1 77.3 94.7 68.6 96.4 59.0 18.7 50.4
optimal bmNN 81.7 77.3 95.8 68.6 96.4 73.5 78.8 52.9

Table 3. Average values of avNN and bmNN for different driving sections of Drive02\04\06\08\11\13.

Average Feature Values

Rec. Name Features 0 1 2
Mean Rest1 Rest2 Mean Hwy1 Hwy2 Mean City1 City2
avNN 0.904 0.915 0.893 0.878 0.888 0.867 0.850 0.843 0.856
Drive02
bmNN/12 0.147 0.135 0.158 0.117 0.107 0.127 0.089 0.076 0.101
avNN 0.918 0.870 0.967 0.803 0.788 0.818 0.806 0.772 0.839
Drive04 bmNN/12 0.117 0.096 0.138 0.028 0.022 0.035 0.063 0.063 0.063
bmNN/4 0.031 0.040 0.021 0.127 0.145 0.110 0.074 0.079 0.068
avNN 0.749 0.734 0.764 0.701 0.689 0.712 0.617 0.585 0.649
Drive06 bmNN/12 0.105 0.097 0.113 0.065 0.074 0.055 0.071 0.074 0.067
bmNN/9 0.096 0.086 0.106 0.062 0.062 0.062 0.057 0.050 0.063
avNN 0.987 0.951 1.023 0.969 0.953 0.985 0.914 0.880 0.947
Drive08
bmNN/12 0.169 0.158 0.181 0.127 0.131 0.124 0.094 0.102 0.086
avNN 1.011 0.995 1.027 0.918 0.911 0.924 0.899 0.896 0.901
Drive11
bmNN/12 0.122 0.127 0.117 0.052 0.062 0.042 0.067 0.075 0.059
avNN 0.720 0.723 0.717 0.615 0.603 0.626 0.584 0.577 0.591
Drive13 bmNN/12 0.084 0.083 0.084 0.078 0.078 0.077 0.062 0.077 0.047
bmNN/15 0.176 0.179 0.173 0.094 0.078 0.110 0.057 0.055 0.058
Notes: avNN, unit: s.

3.2. Classification Results of Driving Datasets with Accuracy below 80%

Among the 10 driving datasets, the classification accuracy obtained by four of them
(Drive07\10\12\15) was less than 80% for the optimal bmNN feature. Table 4 summarizes
the total accuracy of each driving dataset as well as the classification accuracy for the 0 and
1 + 2 categories.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 8 of 14

Table 4. Classification results of Drive07\10\12\15.

Accuracy (%)
Classes Features Drive07 Drive10 Drive12 Drive15
Total 0 1+2 Total 0 1+2 Total 0 1+2 Total 0 1+2
avNN 63.4 90.3 35.7 50.9 0 100 53.6 0 100 88.6 84.6 93.1
0\1 + 2 bmNN/bm=12 65.5 31.9 100 48.0 0 94.3 53.6 0 100 63.4 30.8 100
optimal bmNN 73.2 48.6 98.6 57.9 17.9 96.6 56.5 15.6 91.9 63.4 30.8 100

3.3. Interpretation of Results

Based on the 0\1 + 2 classification method, when the six driving datasets
(Drive02\04\06\08\11\13) used the optimal bmNN as the feature value, the average identi-
fication accuracy reached 93.7%, which was higher than the 76.1% identification accuracy
achieved when avNN was used as the feature value. This indicates that the bmNN value
was more closely related to driving stress than was the average heart rate, and selecting the
bm value achieved the classification of driving stress. However, the classification results
of Drive11\13 when avNN was used as the feature value were 100% accurate, which was
higher than that achieved when using bmNN as the feature value. The superior perfor-
mance of avNN as a feature value for Drive11\13 identification might be related to specific
individuals. Further experiments are needed to discover whether the stress level changes
according to avNN or bmNN and if there are certain rules regarding this change.
When bm equaled 12, the identification accuracy of Drive13 was only 55.2%; however,
when bm equaled 15, the identification accuracy increased to 90.6%. Owing to this signifi-
cant difference in identification accuracy, it was speculated that bm, which represents stress
level, could vary across different driving experiments. For Drive13, the stress expression
was closely related to “1111”.
Table 3 shows the average bmNN values during different driving sections of the
six driving datasets (Drive02\04\06\08\11\13). It was necessary to focus on the changes
in Drive04, because for the other five driving datasets, the average feature values of
bmNN for the different driving sections followed the same order of Rest > Hwy > City.
This was different for Drive04; when bm was 12, the average values of bmNN were
Rest (0.117) > City (0.063) > Hwy (0.028); when bm was 4, the average values of bmNN were
Hwy (0.127) > City (0.074) > Rest (0.031). For Drive04, although the different driving sec-
tions all showed significant changes in the average bmNN value, the trends were different
when bm took the reference value of 12 compared to when bm took the optimal value of 4.
The unexpected events during the driving process and the personality of the driver were
the reasons that led to these changes.
Table 4 shows the identification results for the remaining four datasets
(Drive07\10\12\15). With the optimal bm value, the corresponding bmNN feature identi-
fication accuracy was respectively 73.2, 57.9, 56.5, and 63.4%, whereas the identification
accuracy for category 0 alone was respectively 48.6, 17.9, 15.6, and 30.8%. For category 1 + 2
alone, it was 98.6, 96.6, 91.9, and 100%. The k-NN classification algorithm resulted in almost
perfect identification accuracy for category 1 + 2; however, its performance decreased for
category 0. This might be because, during the rest periods for these four driving datasets,
unexpected events occurred that led to intense emotional fluctuations.
Subsequently, the GSR signals of all datasets during the rest period were compared
to verify the above speculation. Figure 5 shows the GSR waveforms of the four driving
datasets with an accuracy below 80%, whereas Figure 6 shows the GSR waveforms of the
six driving datasets with an accuracy above 80%.
Figure 5a,b show that during Rest2 of Drive07\10, the GSR waveforms showed ab-
normal fluctuations. During Rest1 and Rest2 of Drive12, the GSR waveforms also showed
abnormal fluctuations, which manifested in the foot GSR signals in Figure 5c. During Rest1
of Drive15, the GSR waveforms showed abnormal fluctuations, as well (see Figure 5d). As
a result, the GSR waveforms during the rest periods of these four driving datasets showed
 Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 9 of 14

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW
abnormal fluctuations, which is consistent with the previous hypothesis, which posits that
emotional fluctuations during rest periods cause low identification accuracy using the
optimal bmNN feature.
From the six driving datasets having high identification accuracy (see Figure 6), it was
observed that, apart from Drive04 (see Figure 6b), the other five driving datasets showed no
fluctuations in the GSR waveforms during the rest periods. Since there was no additional
information provided by the designers of the experiment, it was difficult to further analyze
the abnormal performance of Drive04 during the rest periods. However, the 10 fluctuations
of 15
in the GSR waveforms indicated the occurrence of intense emotions, which might cause
sudden changes in the bmNN value.

Figure 5. GSR signals and marker signals of the six driving sections of Drive07\10\12\15: (a) GSR
Figure 5. GSR
and signals
marker and marker
signals signals
of Drive07; of theand
(b) GSR sixmarker
drivingsignals
sections
of of Drive07\10\12\15:
Drive10; (a) GSR
(c) GSR and marker signals of
and marker signals of Drive07; (b) GSR and marker signals of Drive10; (c) GSR and marker
Drive12; (d) GSR and marker signals of Drive15. The foot GSR signal of Drive12 was signals
inconsistent
of Drive12; (d) GSR and marker signals of Drive15. The foot GSR signal of Drive12 was
with the hand GSR signal, and the study referred to the hand GSR signal.
inconsistent with the hand GSR signal, and the study referred to the hand GSR signal.
 Figure 5. GSR signals and marker signals of the six driving sections of Drive07\10\12\15: (a) GSR
and marker signals of Drive07; (b) GSR and marker signals of Drive10; (c) GSR and marker signals
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409
of Drive12; (d) GSR and marker signals of Drive15. The foot GSR signal of Drive12 was 10 of 14
inconsistent with the hand GSR signal, and the study referred to the hand GSR signal.

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 15

Figure 6.Figure
GSR signals
6. GSRand marker
signals signals
and markerof the six driving
signals sections
of the six of Drive02\04\06\08\11\13:
driving sections of Drive02\04\06\(a)
08\11\13:
GSR and(a) marker
GSR and marker signals of Drive02; (b) GSR and marker signals of (c)
signals of Drive02; (b) GSR and marker signals of Drive04; GSR and
Drive04; marker
(c) GSR and marker
signals ofsignals
Drive06; (d) GSR and
of Drive06; marker
(d) GSR andsignals
markerofsignals
Drive08; (e) GSR and
of Drive08; marker
(e) GSR andsignals
markerofsignals
Drive11;
of Drive11;
(f) GSR and marker signals of Drive13. Drive02 and Drive13 lacked hand GSR signals and only had
(f) GSR and marker signals of Drive13. Drive02 and Drive13 lacked hand GSR signals and only had
foot GSR signals. The foot GSR signal of Drive06 was inconsistent with the hand GSR signal, and
foot GSR signals. The foot GSR signal of Drive06 was inconsistent with the hand GSR signal, and the
the study referred to the foot GSR signal.
study referred to the foot GSR signal.
4. Discussion
4. Discussion
In previous studies studies
In previous of stressofdetection based on
stress detection the drivedb
based database,
on the drivedb a common
database, a common
methodmethod
was to take 5 min or less data of different driving sections as a sample,
was to take 5 min or less data of different driving sections as a sample, integrate
integrate all
all driving datasets
driving for sample
datasets training
for sample with
training thethe
with help of aofmachine-learning
help a machine-learning method,
method,andand detect
detect the
the stress on two
stress on two(stress/no
(stress/nostress)
stress)oror three
three (low,
(low, medium,
medium, and and
high)high)
levelslevels
[19,21,23,25].
[19,21,23,25].
ThroughThrough different
different classification
classification algorithms
algorithms and combinations
and combinations of multiple
of multiple features from
featuresdifferent
from different physiological signals, these previous studies achieved
physiological signals, these previous studies achieved good classification good results.
classification results. However, those studies neglected the physiological differences
However, those studies neglected the physiological differences of different individuals of in
different individuals in driving stress; they were also incapable of analyzing the impact
of abnormal events for stress detection in each driving process.
In this study, only one feature of the ECG signals (i.e., bmNN) and the simplest k-NN
classification algorithm were used to train a network with data from the first half of the
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 11 of 14

driving stress; they were also incapable of analyzing the impact of abnormal events for
stress detection in each driving process.
In this study, only one feature of the ECG signals (i.e., bmNN) and the simplest k-NN
classification algorithm were used to train a network with data from the first half of the
driving sections of each driving dataset. This was then used to identify and classify the
stress levels of the second half of the driving sections of these driving datasets. This
was unprecedented, given that most previous studies merged different driving datasets
to classify stress levels on different driving sections. In addition, for different driving
datasets, we chose different bm values for stress detection to conduct personalized analysis.
Combined with the classification accuracy and waveform changes in the GSR during
the rest period, the datasets with abnormal mood fluctuations were determined. The
classification results of the abnormal datasets were not counted. Thus, we eliminated the
impact of abnormal datasets in the driving stress database to improve the overall accuracy
of the stress assessment. Table 5 shows comparisons of this and related works for stress
detection using the drivedb database.

Table 5. Comparison of this and related works for stress detection using the drivedb database.

Datasets Accuracy
Reference Signals Features Techniques Used Required (%)
for Training Rest\Hwy\City
bmNN:
2 classes: 93.7%
Single Single
Heartbeat mode 3 classes: 81.7%
This work ECG features: driving
analysis and k-NN avNN:
bmNN Vs. avNN dataset
2 classes: 76.1%
3 classes: 59.1%
2 classes
Multiple features:
(Recall)
avNN,
Dalmeida et al., SVM, MLP, RF, SVM: 79%
ECG RMSSD, All driving datasets
2021 [6] and GB MLP: 81%
TP, ULF,
RF: 81%
SDNN
GB: 80%
IPCA, CBC, KMC,
3 classes
Elgendi et al., ECG, EMG, Multiple features: and the
All driving datasets ECG: 75.02%
2020 [5] GSR, RESP automatic Selection k-NN-Weighted
GSR: 72.05%
classifier
Yun Liu et al., Multiple features: Fisher projection
GSR All driving datasets 3 classes: 81.8%
2018 [23] 18 features and LDA
Lan-lan Chen et al., ECG, EMG, Multiple features: SBL, PCA,
All driving datasets 3 classes: 99%
2017 [21] GSR, RESP 73 features SVM, and ELM
Jeen-Shing Wang Multiple features: KBCS, PCA, LDA,
ECG All driving datasets 2 classes: 97.8%
et al., 2013 [25] 56 features and k-NN
Fisher projection
Healey et al., ECG, EMG, Multiple features:
matrix and a linear All driving datasets 3 classes: 97.4%
2005 [19] GSR, RESP 22 features
discriminant
Notes: connectivity-based clustering (CBC); extreme learning machine (ELM); gradient boosting (GB); interaction
principal component analysis (IPCA); kernel-based class separability (KBCS); k-means clustering (KMC); k-nearest
neighbor (k-NN); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); multilayer perceptron (MLP); principal component analysis
(PCA); random forest (RF); support vector machine (SVM); sparse Bayesian learning (SBL).

Based on the optimal bm value selected for each driving dataset, samples of every
200 NNIs (approximately 2–3 min) were classified based on stress. Using the 0\1 + 2
classification method, the average identification accuracy for the six driving datasets was
93.7%, whereas the average identification accuracy values for the remaining four driving
datasets were low. However, the GSR waveforms of these four datasets exhibited abnormal
fluctuations during the rest periods, which might explain the low identification accuracy.
These 10 driving datasets revealed that the bmNN value had a high correlation with
psychological stress, which was reflected in real time by changes in GSR signals.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 12 of 14

In the study by Healey et al. [19], GSR had the best real-time correlation with stress,
followed by heart rate and HRV frequency domain indicators. We also discovered that
the different driving sections of Drive 02\04\06\08\11\13 had average avNN values in
the order of Rest > Hwy > City. That is, stress was correlated with heart rate such that the
latter increased with the former, which is consistent with existing research results [19,21].
However, the change in the average avNN value was not significant, and differences existed
among individuals. For the six driving datasets classified with the avNN feature, the average
classification accuracy was 76.1%, whereas the classification accuracy for Drive08 was only
26.8%. For Drive08, the average values of avNN were Rest (0.987) > Hwy (0.969) > City
(0.914), presented in Table 3, and the similar values of avNN in the different driving sections
were the reason for the extremely low classification accuracy. Meanwhile, the identification
accuracy for Drive07\15 data classified into the 0 category was good, indicating that the
avNN feature value did not exhibit any changes to the GSR signal during the rest periods.
After comparing it with the avNN feature value, the value of bmNN was correlated
to the GSR signals, which reflected the emotional changes in real time. Additionally,
owing to individual differences, the avNN values for some driving datasets did not change
significantly when the stress changed. For bmNN, different values for m and bm were used
to, through trial and error, find the relevant beating mode to the individual stress to achieve
an individualized analysis. The average bmNN feature values for the three driving sections
of the five driving datasets (Drive02\06\08\11\13) followed the order of Rest > Hwy > City.
That is, the bm feature value decreased as the stress increased. This verifies the findings
of McCraty et al. [16], indicating that negative emotions of stress negatively impact the
coherence of heart-rhythm patterns.
In this study, classification was discussed using one feature. For some driving datasets,
two features, avNN + bmNN or bmNN + bmNN, were used in combination to improve the
classification accuracy. However, further verification through experiments is necessary to
decide whether such results are meaningful, hence different combinations of features were
not used for stress detection in this study.

5. Conclusions
McCraty et al. [16] mentioned that the synchronization between emotional and physi-
ological dynamics is directly related to rhythmic patterns in the heart rate (the order of the
rate of change over time), not the heart rate itself at any point in time. Furthermore, this
study’s results demonstrated the existence of this HRV rhythm change in synchronization
with emotions. After combining ML methods and heartbeat mode analysis, as well as
choosing values for m and bm, we found that the HRV rhythms corresponded to driver
stress. The different heartbeat modes in the time series were summarized, and specific
heart-rhythm patterns related to different driving stresses were obtained. It was also con-
cluded that the heartbeat mode was correlated with the GSR signal, reflecting real-time
abnormal mood fluctuations.
The proposed method based on heartbeat mode can reveal the variation rule of heart-
rate variability on a shorter time scale (m + 1 NNIs; in this study, m = 4), which is less
affected by the abnormal value of NNI caused by false detection. The proposed bmNN
feature is an effective index for evaluating the dynamic changes of ANS under stress. Thus,
it would be feasible to conduct a personalized analysis to further study the interaction
between physiology and psychology.
In future research, we aim to create a larger dataset for ECG emotional states to
investigate the differences between individuals and emotions using ML methods and
heartbeat mode analysis with m and bm values. An example is the feeling of “heartbeat”
between people when they are in love, which might not be only a figurative metric; it might
correspond to specific beating modes of the heart. Based on our findings, such phenomena
can now be studied.
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 1409 13 of 14

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, D.H. and L.G.; Data curation, D.H.; Formal analysis,
D.H.; Funding acquisition, L.G.; Investigation, D.H.; Methodology, D.H.; Supervision, L.G.; Writing—
original draft, D.H.; Writing—review and editing, D.H. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This work was supported by the HFIPS Director’s Fund, Grant No. YZJJ2021QN25. Key
research projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant No. 92067205.
Major science and technology project of Anhui Province, Grant No. 202103a05020022.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: This work was partly carried out at the Robotic Sensors and Human–Computer
Interaction Laboratory, Hefei Institute of Intelligent Machinery, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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