Electrodermal Activity Parameters Reflect Cognitive Effort in Mental Tasks: a comparison of analysis methods

Electrodermal activity (EDA) derived parameters in the time domain have been proposed as sensitive measures of sympathetic activation in relation to emotional and cognitive arousal. Numerous EDA analysis approaches and models have been developed in the literature, but their influence on study results has been rarely analyzed. Thus, this study evaluates the use of two widely adopted approaches for the extraction of EDA parameters in response to mental and cognitive tasks. Specifically, we selected the continuous deconvolution analysis (CDA) and the convex optimization approach (cvxEDA) for modeling the tonic and phasic components of the skin conductance (SC) signal. Results showed good agreement between the EDA parameters obtained with the two methods (Bland-Altman analysis) and coherent modulations as a function of the protocol phase. Specifically, EDA parameters proved sensitive to mental tasks inducing different cognitive effort and arousal levels.