What is electrodermal activity?


Electrodermal activity (EDA) also known as skin conductance or galvanic skin response, is when the skin conducts electricity through the sweat glands, and can tell us a lot about the state of the body and mind.

Most commonly, it’s used to detect stress levels and tends to increase with emotional or physical arousal.

Significant EDA responses have also been shown to be correlated with tonic-clonic seizures. In fact, it’s something that our Chief Scientist, and Co-Founder, Dr. Rosalind Picard discovered during one of her studies.  This discovery inspired us to build a significantly more accurate method of detecting tonic-clonic seizures.


What affects EDA?

Several factors can raise your EDA, such as physical activity, excitement, and stress.  EDA can also fluctuate based on daily water intake and with certain medication. The measurements of EDA can be affected by skin hydration, and where the sensors are placed.


How does Embrace measure EDA?

The electrodes on the back are in constant contact with the skin and can measure the subtle changes of electrical current passing through the skin. 



What role does EDA play in our seizure monitoring algorithm?

EDA helps make our algorithm more precise, and less likely to trigger false alarms, than relying solely on movement data. We continue to analyze characteristic EDA signatures of tonic-clonic seizures to continually improve our algorithm.



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