Research on the Electrodermal Activity during Walking and Running

Electrodermal activity (EDA), referred to the term for changes in electrical conductance of the skin, is a significant physiological signals in health. It can be applied to many aspects, such as affective computing and the monitoring of diseases. Physical activity signal is another kind of commonly used parameter. However, body movement has great influence on physiological signals because of the changes in autonomic sympathetic arousal caused by energy expenditure. It is difficult for the recognition of emotion and the record of physiological signals associated with disease. There are few related researches during normal daily activity, especially in motion states. In the present study, we developed a wrist-type multi-physiological parameters acquisition device, recording EDA, skin temperature, acceleration and angular velocity signals, to study the variation of physiological signals in motion states, like walking and running. We found that the EDA was positively correlated with energy expenditure under different physical motion states. The more intense the movement is, the faster the EDA changes and vice versa. The result of this study could be used to facilitate the application of affective computing during motion states, and further be used in emotional recognition of athletes or normal people during daily exercise in the future.