Behavior Monitoring Technologies Protocol

Movement and Sleep (Actigraphy)

Each participant is provided with a wrist-worn ActiGraph wGT3X-BT or GENEActiv to monitor movement throughout the day and night. Participants are requested to wear the device every day and night for up to one month. The device is cleaned and recharged and its data are downloaded upon its return. The wGT3X-BT includes a wear-time sensor, allowing for participants to occasionally remove their devices without compromising data integrity.

Please note that actigraphy data will be released in future data releases.

Voice and Facial Expressions

Voice analysis stands out as particularly promising, given its increasing application in psychiatry (e.g., to assess mood and anxiety), in neurology (e.g., to assess motor function in populations such as those affected by Parkinson’s disease) and in developmental studies (e.g., to assess pubertal stage). The ease with which one can record audio samples in a controlled setting is particularly appealing.

During the administration of some HBN assessments and interviews, audio and video recordings are collected.
While in the MRI scanner, participants view an animated emotionally evocative four-minute film, entitled “The Present”; immediately after coming out of the scanner, participants are prompted to narrate the story in their own words and answer a series of perspective-taking questions that are related to the content of the film. Additional measures of voice and speech are collected during the MRI visit. These include maximum performance tasks (maximal phonation time, pitch range, and s/z ratio), tasks of speech praxis (diadochokinesis), as well as repetition of multisyllabic words, nonsense words, and a connected speech sample elicited through a reading passage.

During the narration, question answering session, and speech and language tasks, high-fidelity audio recordings are collected. Additionally, high-definition video of their face and upper body is collected simultaneously with a Canon XC15 digital camcorder. The audio recordings enable voice and speech analysis and the video recordings are envisioned to be useful for future analyses in facial expression.

Please not that voice and video data are not currently released.