Overview of Biosignal Analysis Methods for the Assessment of Stress

Objectives: Stress is a normal reaction of the human organism induced in situations that demand a level of activation. This reaction has both positive and negative impact on the life of each individual. Thus, the problem of stress management is vital for the maintenance of a person’s psychological balance. This paper aims at the brief presentation of stress definition and various factors that can lead to augmented stress levels. Moreover, a brief synopsis of biosignals that are used for the detection and categorization of stress and their analysis is presented. Methods: Several studies, articles and reviews were included after literature research. The main questions of the research were: the most important and widely used physiological signals for stress detection/assessment, the analysis methods for their manipulation and the implementation of signal analysis for stress detection/assessment in various developed systems. Findings: The main conclusion is that current researching approaches lead to more sophisticated methods of analysis and more accurate systems of stress detection and assessment. However, the lack of a concrete framework towards stress detection and assessment remains a great challenge for the research community.