Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34242325›Full record

ArticlePloS one2021

Exploration of physiological sensors, features, and machine learning models for pain intensity estimation.

Fatemeh Pouromran, Srinivasan Radhakrishnan, Sagar Kamarthi

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed
7.8field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed, 82 citations in OpenAlex.

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  9. Pseudo-labeling based adaptations of pain domain classifiers.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Fatemeh PouromranMechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Srinivasan RadhakrishnanMechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Sagar KamarthiMechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0001-5845-7714
Northeastern University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In current clinical settings, typically pain is measured by a patient's self-reported information. This subjective pain assessment results in suboptimal treatment plans, over-prescription of opioids, and drug-seeking behavior among patients. In the present study, we explored automatic objective pain intensity estimation machine learning models using inputs from physiological sensors. This study uses BioVid Heat Pain Dataset. We extracted features from Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electromyogram (EMG) signals collected from study participants subjected to heat pain. We built different machine learning models, including Linear Regression, Support Vector Regression (SVR), Neural Networks and Extreme Gradient Boosting for continuous value pain intensity estimation. Then we identified the physiological sensor, feature set and machine learning model that give the best predictive performance. We found that EDA is the most information-rich sensor for continuous pain intensity prediction. A set of only 3 features from EDA signals using SVR model gave an average performance of 0.93 mean absolute error (MAE) and 1.16 root means square error (RMSE) for the subject-independent model and of 0.92 MAE and 1.13 RMSE for subject-dependent. The MAE achieved with signal-feature-model combination is less than 1 unit on 0 to 4 continues pain scale, which is smaller than the MAE achieved by the methods reported in the literature. These results demonstrate that it is possible to estimate pain intensity of a patient using a computationally inexpensive machine learning model with 3 statistical features from EDA signal which can be collected from a wrist biosensor. This method paves a way to developing a wearable pain measurement device.

Indexed as

Machine LearningModels, TheoreticalAlgorithmsGalvanic Skin ResponseGeneralization, StimulusHumansPainPhysiology

Identifiers

PMID34242325
PMCPMC8270203
OpenAlexW3182971338

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.