Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics

Abstract Depressive Disorder (DD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Screening tools for detecting DD symptoms are essential for monitoring and efficient managing. Remarkably, individuals’ kinetic activities, including their interaction with touchscreen smartphones, can be a proxy for their...

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Main Authors: Ruba Fadul, Aamna AlShehhi, Leontios Hadjileontiadis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-11-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78489-x
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author Ruba Fadul
Aamna AlShehhi
Leontios Hadjileontiadis
author_facet Ruba Fadul
Aamna AlShehhi
Leontios Hadjileontiadis
author_sort Ruba Fadul
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Depressive Disorder (DD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Screening tools for detecting DD symptoms are essential for monitoring and efficient managing. Remarkably, individuals’ kinetic activities, including their interaction with touchscreen smartphones, can be a proxy for their mental status. Therefore, studying these typing patterns can assist in developing passive screening tools for detecting even the early stage of DD, i.e., the depressive tendency (DT). Here we extend a previous study by exploring different machine learning models with various feature engineering approaches to detect the subjects’ DT, as indicated by the self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score, via keystroke digital biomarkers. The keystroke timing sequences were unobtrusively collected from 24 subjects during routine interaction with touchscreen smartphones, resulting in 23,264 typing sessions. The proposed framework was investigated under two keystroke feature combinations—hold-time and flight-time variables—and validated using nested cross-validation scheme. Different feature selection (FS) techniques were employed to select informative features from the keystroke sequences. The best-performing gradient boosting classifier with features selected by the mutual information FS method achieved an improved Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.98 [95% confidence interval: 0.91-1.00]. The proposed DT pipeline, which surpasses the state-of-the-art models, could effectively capture DT, considering users’ behavioural characteristics. This would potentially provide users with information regarding the evolution of their mental health, simultaneously contributing to improving digital tools for objectively screening mental disorders in-the-wild.
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spelling doaj-art-61be497da2a842f9a25eb8475f9377e82024-11-17T12:29:19ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-11-0114111310.1038/s41598-024-78489-xRobust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristicsRuba Fadul0Aamna AlShehhi1Leontios Hadjileontiadis2Department of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyDepartment of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyDepartment of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science and TechnologyAbstract Depressive Disorder (DD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Screening tools for detecting DD symptoms are essential for monitoring and efficient managing. Remarkably, individuals’ kinetic activities, including their interaction with touchscreen smartphones, can be a proxy for their mental status. Therefore, studying these typing patterns can assist in developing passive screening tools for detecting even the early stage of DD, i.e., the depressive tendency (DT). Here we extend a previous study by exploring different machine learning models with various feature engineering approaches to detect the subjects’ DT, as indicated by the self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score, via keystroke digital biomarkers. The keystroke timing sequences were unobtrusively collected from 24 subjects during routine interaction with touchscreen smartphones, resulting in 23,264 typing sessions. The proposed framework was investigated under two keystroke feature combinations—hold-time and flight-time variables—and validated using nested cross-validation scheme. Different feature selection (FS) techniques were employed to select informative features from the keystroke sequences. The best-performing gradient boosting classifier with features selected by the mutual information FS method achieved an improved Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.98 [95% confidence interval: 0.91-1.00]. The proposed DT pipeline, which surpasses the state-of-the-art models, could effectively capture DT, considering users’ behavioural characteristics. This would potentially provide users with information regarding the evolution of their mental health, simultaneously contributing to improving digital tools for objectively screening mental disorders in-the-wild.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78489-xDepression diseaseKeystroke dynamicsTypingRemote screeningDetectionMachine learning
spellingShingle Ruba Fadul
Aamna AlShehhi
Leontios Hadjileontiadis
Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
Scientific Reports
Depression disease
Keystroke dynamics
Typing
Remote screening
Detection
Machine learning
title Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
title_full Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
title_fullStr Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
title_full_unstemmed Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
title_short Robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
title_sort robust remote detection of depressive tendency based on keystroke dynamics and behavioural characteristics
topic Depression disease
Keystroke dynamics
Typing
Remote screening
Detection
Machine learning
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78489-x
work_keys_str_mv AT rubafadul robustremotedetectionofdepressivetendencybasedonkeystrokedynamicsandbehaviouralcharacteristics
AT aamnaalshehhi robustremotedetectionofdepressivetendencybasedonkeystrokedynamicsandbehaviouralcharacteristics
AT leontioshadjileontiadis robustremotedetectionofdepressivetendencybasedonkeystrokedynamicsandbehaviouralcharacteristics