Pietro Cipresso, is Advanced Researcher at Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan. He graduated at Bocconi University of Milan in economics, major in statistics and operational research. He received his Ph.D. in communication and new technologies, major in psychology, from IULM University of Milan. Cipresso has been Visiting Research Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is the author of more than 50 scientific publication and of the book "Modeling Emotions At the Edge of Chaos. From psychophysiology to networked emotions."
Abstract: Ubiquitous computing technologies offer exciting new possibilities for monitoring and analyzing user’s experience in real time. In this paper, we describe the design and development of Psychlog, a mobile phone platform designed to collect users’ psychological, physiological, and activity information for mental health research. The tool allows administering self-report questionnaires at specific times or randomly within a day. The system also permits to collect heart rate and activity information from a wireless electrocardiogram equipped with a three-axial accelerometer. By combining self-reports with heart rate and activity data, the application makes it possible to investigate the relationship between psychological, physiological, and behavioral variables, as well as to monitor their fluctuations over time. The software runs on Windows mobile operative system and is available as open source (http://sourceforge.net/projects/psychlog/).
Abstract: Several studies have demonstrated that exposure therapy—in which the patient is exposed to specific feared situations or objects that trigger anxiety—is an effective way to treat anxiety disorders. However, to overcome a number of limitations inherent in this approach—lack of full control of the situation, costs and time required, etc.—some therapists have started to add virtual reality (VR) to the in vivo exposure-based therapy, providing in-office, controlled exposure therapy. Compared to the in vivo exposure, VR Exposure Therapy (VRET) is completely controlled: the quality, the intensity and the frequency of the exposure are decided by the therapist, and the therapy can be stopped at any time if the patient does not tolerate it. Moreover, the flexibility of a virtual experience allows the patient to experience situations that are often much worse and more exaggerated than those that are likely to be encountered in real life. However, a critical issue underlying the use of VRET in the treatment of anxiety-related disorders is the lack of a virtual reality system in the patient’s real-life context. In this paper, we present a clinical protocol for the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorders (GAD) based on the ubiquitous use of a biofeedback-enhanced VR system. The protocol includes the use of a mobile exposure system allowing patients to perform the virtual experience in an outpatient setting. A between-subjects study, involving 25 GAD patients, was carried out to verify the efficacy of the proposed approach. The clinical data in this pilot study seemed to support the efficacy of the ubiquitous approach.
Abstract: In a recent JMIR article, El Emam, Moreau and Jonker highlight the importance of using strong passwords to protect personal health information in clinical trials [1]. An important implication that was not fully discussed is the potential problem people may have to create passwords that are complex but at the same time easy to remember.
To address this problem we propose the PsychoPass methord, a simple way to create strong passwords which are easy to remember. This method relies on mental practice and is not an hardware or a software to download. The idea is that a password can be created, memorized and recalled by just thinking of an action sequence instead of a word or string of characters. To be more specific, the method consists of the following steps (see Figure 1 and 2): (1) begin with a letter on the keyboard; (2) memorize a sequence of actions (something like “the key on the left, then the upper one, then the one on the right”, and so on); (3) memorize the sequence (not the letters used); (4) create as many passwords as you want by remembering only the first letter and the sequence. Using different types of sequences it is possible generate thousands of different passwords. Using sequences' combination is possible to create an infinite number of passwords. Moreover the created passwords will be a nonsense sequence of letters, numbers and symbols, resilient to any attack.
Furthermore the password communication among colleagues maybe done just by using the first letter and on the base of a common knowledge of the sequence (e.g., sequence 3, letter j).
El Emam and Colleagues state that more sophisticated collaboration tools are required to allow file sharing without password sharing, and provide several recommendations to implement these practices. We think that more awareness and new practices among users may represent the correct way to implement security beyond the technological issues. In particular, future research needs to focus on the processes that make technology a powerful tool for security.
Abstract: In this paper we introduce a new ubiquitous computing paradigm for behavioral health care: "Interreality". Interreality integrates assessment and treatment within a hybrid environment, that creates a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds. Our claim is that bridging virtual experiences (fully controlled by the therapist, used to learn coping skills and emotional regulation) with real experiences (allowing both the identification of any critical stressors and the assessment of what has been learned) using advanced technologies (virtual worlds, advanced sensors and PDA/mobile phones) may improve existing psychological treatment. To illustrate the proposed concept, a clinical scenario is also presented and discussed: Daniela, a 40 years old teacher, with a mother affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Abstract: Abstract People are more and more using social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace to engage with others. The use of SNSs can have both positive and negative effect on the individual; however, the increasing use of SNSs might reveal that people look for SNSs because they have a positive experience when they use them. Few studies have tried to identify which particular aspects of the social networking experience make SNSs so successful. In this study we focus on the affective experience evoked by SNSs. In particular, we explore whether the use of SNSs elicits a specific psychophysiological pattern. Specifically, we recorded skin conductance, blood volume pulse, electroencephalogram, electromyography, respiratory activity, and pupil dilation in 30 healthy subjects during a 3-minute exposure to (a) a slide show of natural panoramas (relaxation condition), (b) the subject's personal Facebook account, and (c) a Stroop and mathematical task (stress condition). Statistical analysis of the psychophysiological data and pupil dilation indicates that the Facebook experience was significantly different from stress and relaxation on many linear and spectral indices of somatic activity. Moreover, the biological signals revealed that Facebook use can evoke a psychophysiological state characterized by high positive valence and high arousal (Core Flow State). These findings support the hypothesis that the successful spread of SNSs might be associated with a specific positive affective state experienced by users when they use their SNSs account.
Abstract: At MMVR 2007 we presented NeuroVR (http://www.neurovr.org) a free virtual reality platform based on open-source software. The software allows non-expert users to adapt the content of 14 pre-designed virtual environments to the specific needs of the clinical or experimental setting. Following the feedbacks of the 2000 users who downloaded the first versions (1 and 1.5), we developed a new version--NeuroVR 2 (http://www.neurovr2.org)--that improves the possibility for the therapist to enhance the patient's feeling of familiarity and intimacy with the virtual scene, by using external sounds, photos or videos. More, when running a simulation, the system offers a set of standard features that contribute to increase the realism of the simulated scene. These include collision detection to control movements in the environment, realistic walk-style motion, advanced lighting techniques for enhanced image quality, and streaming of video textures using alpha channel for transparency.
Abstract: We present a preliminary quantitative study aimed at developing an optimal standard protocol for automatic classification of specific affective states as related to human- computer interactions. This goal is mainly achieved by comparing standard psychological test-reports to quantitative measures derived from simultaneous non-invasive acquisition of psychophysiological signals of interest, namely respiration, galvanic skin response, blood volume pulse, electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram. Forty-three healthy students were exposed to computer-mediated stimuli, while wearable non-invasive sensors were applied in order to collect the physiological data. The stimuli were designed to elicit three distinct affective states: relaxation, engagement and stress. In this work we report how our quantitative analysis has helped in redefining important aspects of the protocol, and we show preliminary findings related to the specific psychophysiological patterns correlating with the three target affective states. Results further suggest that some of the quantitative measures might be useful in characterizing specific affective states.
Abstract: In this work, we present an analytical model of hyper-inflated economies and develop a computational model that permits us to consider expectations of the levels of future prices following emotional rules and strategies. We take into account communications among agents by adding a feedback rule. To consider emotions in agents, we use the Plutchik psycho-evolutionary theory of emotions to design an agent-based emotional architecture based on the attack-escape strategy. The computational model is based on a Barabà si-Albert Network and considers the diffusion of information and the diffusion of emotions among agents.
