An Emotion-Driven Vocal Biomarker-Based PTSD Screening Tool

Thomas F. Quatieri; Jing Wang; James R. Williamson; Richard DeLaura; Tanya Talkar; Nancy P. Solomon; Stefanie E. Kuchinsky; Megan Eitel; Tracey Brickell; Sara Lippa; Kristin J. Heaton; Douglas S. Brungart; Louis French; Rael Lange; Jeffrey Palmer; Hayley Reynolds

doi:10.1109/OJEMB.2023.3284798

IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology (Jan 2024)

An Emotion-Driven Vocal Biomarker-Based PTSD Screening Tool

Thomas F. Quatieri,
Jing Wang,
James R. Williamson,
Richard DeLaura,
Tanya Talkar,
Nancy P. Solomon,
Stefanie E. Kuchinsky,
Megan Eitel,
Tracey Brickell,
Sara Lippa,
Kristin J. Heaton,
Douglas S. Brungart,
Louis French,
Rael Lange,
Jeffrey Palmer,
Hayley Reynolds

Affiliations

Thomas F. Quatieri: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
Jing Wang: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
James R. Williamson: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
Richard DeLaura: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
Tanya Talkar: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
Nancy P. Solomon: ORCiD; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Stefanie E. Kuchinsky: ORCiD; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Megan Eitel: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Tracey Brickell: Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Sara Lippa: National Intrepid Center of Excellence, WRNMMC, Bethesda, MD, USA
Kristin J. Heaton: ORCiD; U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), Natick, MA, USA
Douglas S. Brungart: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Louis French: Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Rael Lange: Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, MD, USA
Jeffrey Palmer: ORCiD; MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA
Hayley Reynolds: MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL), Lexington, MA, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/OJEMB.2023.3284798
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 5
pp. 621 – 626

Abstract

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Goal: This paper introduces an automated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) screening tool that could potentially be used as a self-assessment or inserted into routine medical visits to aid in PTSD diagnosis and treatment. Methods: With an emotion estimation algorithm providing arousal (excited to calm) and valence (pleasure to displeasure) levels through discourse, we select regions of the acoustic signal that are most salient for PTSD detection. Our algorithm was tested on a subset of data from the DVBIC-TBICoE TBI Study, which contains PTSD Check List Civilian (PCL-C) assessment scores. Results: Speech from low-arousal and positive-valence regions provide the highest discrimination for PTSD. Our model achieved an AUC (area under the curve) of 0.80 in detecting PCL-C ratings, outperforming models with no emotion filtering (AUC = 0.68). Conclusions: This result suggests that emotion drives the selection of the most salient temporal regions of an audio recording for PTSD detection.

Published in IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology

ISSN: 2644-1276 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Medicine: Medicine (General): Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics; Medicine: Medicine (General): Medical technology
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=8782705

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Abstract

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