Emotion recognition systems with electrodermal activity

Affective computing is an interdisciplinary field that aims to automatically recognize and interpret emotions. Recent research has focused on using physiological signals (e.g., electrodermal activity) to improve emotion recognition. However, the theoretical emotion models that underlie these systems...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: D'Amelio, Tomás Ariel, Galán, Lorenzo A., Maldonado, Emmanuel Alesandro, Díaz Barquinero, Agustín Ariel, Rodríguez Cuello, Jerónimo, Bruno, Nicolás Marcelo, Tagliazucchi, Enzo, Engemann, Denis Alexander
Format: article
Publication Date:2025
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:326650
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/326650
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2025.130831
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Affective computing
Emotion recognition
Electrodermal activity
Emotion models
Systematic review
Meta-analysis
Description
Summary:Affective computing is an interdisciplinary field that aims to automatically recognize and interpret emotions. Recent research has focused on using physiological signals (e.g., electrodermal activity) to improve emotion recognition. However, the theoretical emotion models that underlie these systems have received comparatively little attention. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on electrodermal-activity-based emotion-recognition systems. Our findings suggest that arousal prediction models outperform valence prediction models, supporting our preregistered hypothesis. This correlates with arousal's association with autonomic nervous system activity and its direct link to electrodermal activity. We also observed a mismatch between the machine-learning approaches most often used-chiefly classification models-and the predominantly dimensional emotion frameworks adopted in the literature. Specifically, although dimensional affective models are increasingly popular, there has not been a parallel rise in regression models that would better reflect the continuous nature of the underlying data. We conclude that a comprehensive understanding of affective states requires consideration of both psychological and computational perspectives in affective computing research.