Does Peoples’ Keyboard Typing Reflect Their Stress Level?

Keyboard-typing tracking offers a convenient behavioral data collection method in web-based study settings. This paper investigated the feasibility of utilizing keyboard-typing for stress measurement. We present data from two experiments: a laboratory study with N = 53 participants and an online study with N = 924 participants. In both studies, participants typed standardized text sequences during a high-stress or low-stress condition. The manipulation checks revealed consistent differences in participant’s stress levels according to experimental conditions. The analysis of 11 typing features with frequentist and machine learning methods revealed a few isolated links between stress and keyboard typing, but the results were inconsistent across both studies and the analysis methods. To foster replication, critical discussion, and new developments, we follow the open science principles of open data, source, and methodology.

Hygienic Assessment of Digital Writing: A Bio-Cybernetic Approach. Report I

Background: Introduction of digital technologies into the educational process involves the widespread use of keyboard typing and spending less time handwriting. At the same time, studies in the field of physiology and hygiene of handwriting show its importance for the development and formation of brain functions in children in the learning process. Potential risks for child development associated with regular typing and rare handwriting require proper hygienic assessment of the former. Yet, the lack of a scientifically based methodological approach is a strong limitation for such studies. Objective: To develop a methodological approach and conduct a pilot study on hygienic assessment of digital writing based on a bio-cybernetic analysis of the bioelectrical activity of the brain. Materials and methods: To arrange and conduct the research, we developed an algorithm based on a comparative analysis of the bioelectrical activity of the brain during typing and handwriting. Scalp electrodes were applied according to the International 10–20 system. EEG registration was carried out using a Neuro-KM computer-aided electroencephalograph by Statokin, Russia, with a Brainsys software for spectral-coherent and statistical analysis of EEG. The software allowed us to estimate the topography of the absolute power of the alpha rhythm in a resting state, during handwriting and typing, and the intrahemispheric and interhemispheric coherence of the alpha rhythm. Results: We established that the power of vibrations in the alpha range during digital and handwriting decreased compared to the resting state. Such a decrease reflecting activation of the cortex was noted in a more extensive area during handwriting. Typing decreased alpha waves only in the motor and sensorimotor areas of the brain. Compared to the resting state, handwriting significantly increased interaction between all areas of the cortex inside both hemispheres while typing did that in one hemisphere only. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that handwriting is provided by a more complex system of activation and interaction of areas of the cerebral cortex than typing. The developed algorithm can be used for further research on digital writing.

Modelling typing disfluencies as finite mixture process

To writing anything on a keyboard at all requires us to know first what to type, then to activate motor programmes for finger movements, and execute these. An interruption in the information flow at any of these stages leads to disfluencies. To capture this combination of fluent typing and typing hesitations, researchers calculate different measures from keystroke-latency data—such as mean inter-keystroke interval and pause frequencies. There are two fundamental problems with this: first, summary statistics ignore important information in the data and frequently result in biased estimates; second, pauses and pause-related measures are defined using threshold values which are, in principle, arbitrary. We implemented a series of Bayesian models that aimed to address both issues while providing reliable estimates for individual typing speed and statistically inferred process disfluencies. We tested these models on a random sample of 250 copy-task recordings. Our results illustrate that we can model copy typing as a mixture process of fluent and disfluent key transitions. We conclude that mixture models (1) map onto the information cascade that generate keystrokes, and (2) provide a principled approach to detect disfluencies in keyboard typing.

Synchronization between Keyboard Typing and Neural Oscillations

Rhythmic neural activity synchronizes with certain rhythmic behaviors, such as breathing, sniffing, saccades, and speech. The extent to which neural oscillations synchronize with higher-level and more complex behaviors is largely unknown. Here, we investigated electrophysiological synchronization with keyboard typing, which is an omnipresent behavior daily engaged by an uncountably large number of people. Keyboard typing is rhythmic, with frequency characteristics roughly the same as neural oscillatory dynamics associated with cognitive control, notably through midfrontal theta (4–7 Hz) oscillations. We tested the hypothesis that synchronization occurs between typing and midfrontal theta and breaks down when errors are committed. Thirty healthy participants typed words and sentences on a keyboard without visual feedback, while EEG was recorded. Typing rhythmicity was investigated by interkeystroke interval analyses and by a kernel density estimation method. We used a multivariate spatial filtering technique to investigate frequency-specific synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations. Our results demonstrate theta rhythmicity in typing (around 6.5 Hz) through the two different behavioral analyses. Synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, but to a larger extent for lower frequencies. However, peak synchronization frequency was idiosyncratic across participants, therefore not specific to theta nor to midfrontal regions, and correlated somewhat with peak typing frequency. Errors and trials associated with stronger cognitive control were not associated with changes in synchronization at any frequency. As a whole, this study shows that brain–behavior synchronization does occur during keyboard typing but is not specific to midfrontal theta.

Monitoring the Motor Phenotype in Huntington’s Disease by Analysis of Keyboard Typing During Real Life Computer Use

Background: Besides cognitive and psychiatric abnormalities, motor symptoms are the most prominent in Huntington’s disease. The manifest disease is preceded by a prodromal phase with subtle changes such as fine motor disturbances or concentration problems. Objective: Movement disorders show a high variation in their clinical manifestation depending on condition and external influences. Therefore, devices for continuous measurements, which patients use in their daily life and which can monitor motor abnormalities, in addition to the medical examination, might be useful. The aim of current scientific efforts is to find markers that reflect the prodromal phase in gene carriers. This is important for future interventional studies, as future therapies should be applied at the stage of neuronal dysfunction, i.e., before the clinical manifestation. Methods: We performed a software-supported, continuous monitoring of keyboard typing on the participants’ own computer to evaluate this method as a tool to assess the motor phenotype in HD. We included 40 participants and obtained sufficient data from 25 participants, 12 of whom were manifest HD patients, 7 HD gene expansion carriers (HDGEC) and 6 healthy controls. Results: In a cross-sectional analysis we found statistically significant higher typing inconsistency in HD patients compared to controls. Typing inconsistency compared between HDGEC and healthy controls showed a trend to higher inconsistency levels in HDGEC. We found correlations between typing cadence and clinical scores: the UHDRS finger tapping item, the composite UHDRS and the CAP score. Conclusion: The typing cadence inconsistency is an appropriate marker to evaluate fine motor skills of HD patients and HDGEC and is correlated to established clinical measurements.

Synchronization between keyboard typing and neural oscillations

Rhythmic neural activity synchronizes with certain rhythmic behaviors, such as breathing, sniffing, saccades, and speech. The extent to which neural oscillations synchronize with higher-level and more complex behaviors is largely unknown. Here we investigated electrophysiological synchronization with keyboard typing, which is an omnipresent behavior daily engaged by an uncountably large number of people. Keyboard typing is rhythmic with frequency characteristics roughly the same as neural oscillatory dynamics associated with cognitive control, notably through midfrontal theta (4 -7 Hz) oscillations. We tested the hypothesis that synchronization occurs between typing and midfrontal theta, and breaks down when errors are committed. Thirty healthy participants typed words and sentences on a keyboard without visual feedback, while EEG was recorded. Typing rhythmicity was investigated by inter-keystroke interval analyses and by a kernel density estimation method. We used a multivariate spatial filtering technique to investigate frequency-specific synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations. Our results demonstrate theta rhythmicity in typing (around 6.5 Hz) through the two different behavioral analyses. Synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, but to a larger extent for lower frequencies. However, peak synchronization frequency was idiosyncratic across subjects, therefore not specific to theta nor to midfrontal regions, and correlated somewhat with peak typing frequency. Errors and trials associated with stronger cognitive control were not associated with changes in synchronization at any frequency. As a whole, this study shows that brain-behavior synchronization does occur during keyboard typing but is not specific to midfrontal theta.Significance statementEvery day, millions of people type on keyboards. Keyboard typing is a rhythmic behavior, with inter-keystroke-intervals of around 135 ms (~7 Hz), which is roughly the same frequency as the brain rhythm implicated in cognitive control (“theta” band, ~6 Hz). Here we investigated the hypothesis that the EEG signature of cognitive control is synchronized with keyboard typing. By recording EEG during typing in 30 healthy subjects we showed that keyboard typing indeed follows theta rhythmicity, and that synchronization between typing and neural oscillations occurs. However, synchronization was not limited to theta but occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, and in several regions. Brain-behavior synchronization during typing thus seems more nuanced and complex than we originally hypothesized.