Development of a Novel Web Camera-Based Contact-Free Major Depressive Disorder Screening System Using Autonomic...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Psychiatry
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Developed a contact-type fingertip photoplethysmography system for major depressive disorder (MDD) screening.
• Created a novel web camera-based contact-free MDD screening system (WCF-MSS) due to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.
• WCF-MSS enables non-contact measurement of autonomic transient responses during mental tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a contact-free system for screening potential major depressive disorder (MDD) patients.
• To assess the feasibility of using web camera technology for measuring autonomic nervous system responses related to MDD.
• To provide an accessible screening tool that can be integrated into everyday devices like smartphones.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a web camera (1920 × 1080 pixels, 30 frames/s) to monitor facial color tone changes from arterial pulsation, measuring time-series interbeat intervals (IBI).
• Calculated low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components of heart rate variability (HRV) to evaluate autonomic nervous activation.
• Employed logistic regression with four variables (HF during MT, %ΔLF, %ΔHF from Pre-R to MT, %ΔHF from MT to Post-R) for MDD discrimination, determined by a minimum redundancy maximum relevance algorithm.
• Validated against electrocardiography (ECG) for IBI and HRV reference measures in 26 MDD patients and 27 healthy volunteers.

Main Results:

• Achieved 73% sensitivity and 85% specificity in 5-fold cross-validation for MDD screening.
• Demonstrated a significant correlation between WCF-MSS derived IBI and reference ECG IBI (r = 0.97, p < 0.0001).
• Found a significant correlation between logit scores from the WCF-MSS and subjective self-rating depression scale scores (r = 0.43, p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The web camera-based contact-free MDD screening system (WCF-MSS) shows promise as a non-invasive screening tool.
• This technology allows for the utilization of web cameras in smartphones as potential MDD screening systems.
• The WCF-MSS offers a convenient and accessible method for early detection of MDD.