Galvanic skin response characteristic of trauma survivors and applying signal processing techniques to improve its ability as a useful predictor in behavioral modeling

Galvanic skin conductance measurement has two components: the tonic skin conductance level (SCL) and the phasic skin response (GSR). While SCL reflects inter-individual variability and the instantaneous physiology and ambient conditions at the time of measurement, the phasic changes of the GSR is associated with emotional arousal and is widely used as a biomarker for behavioral studies. AURORA is a multi-site longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to collect observations from trauma survivors over a period of one year with an overarching goal of understanding adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS). In AURORA, skin conductance measurement is done at the time of enrollment in the emergency department using an instrument developed by Mindfield Biosystems called eSense. This paper presents the preprocessing and quality assurance of these AURORA eSense skin conductance data and aims to identify the best parameter that can be used as a biomarker in understanding APNS among the AURORA sample.