Comparison of automatic and physiologically-based feature selection methods for classifying physiological stress using heart rate and pulse rate variability indices

<i>Objective.</i>This study evaluates the effectiveness of four machine learning algorithms in classifying physiological stress using heart rate variability (HRV) and pulse rate variability (PRV) time series, comparing an automatic feature selection based on Akaike's criterion to a physiologically-based feature selection approach.<i>Approach.</i>Linear discriminant analysis, support vector machines,<i>K</i>-nearest neighbors and random forest were applied on ten HRV and PRV indices from time, frequency and information domains, selected with the two feature selection approaches. Data were collected from 127 healthy individuals during different stress conditions (rest, postural and mental stress).<i>Main results.</i>Our results highlight that, while specific stress classification is feasible, distinguishing between postural and mental stress remains challenging. The used classifiers exhibited similar performance, with automatic Akaike Information Criterion-based feature selection proving overall better than the physiology-driven approach. Additionally, PRV-based features performed comparably to HRV-based ones, indicating their potential in outpatient monitoring using wearable devices.<i>Significance.</i>The obtained findings help to determine the most relevant HRV/PRV features for stress classification, potentially useful to highlight different physiological mechanisms involved during both challenges accompanied by a shift in the sympathovagal balance. The proposed approach may have implications for advancing stress assessment methodologies in clinical settings and real-world contexts for well-being evaluation.