A Psycholinguistics Protocol with Simultaneous Multimodal Physiological Data Collection for Individualized Pre-Screening Depressive Disorders v2

We present the PRESCRIBE (Preconscious Signal Compilation for Robust and Individualized Belief Evaluation) protocol, a structured, multimodal data collection framework designed to investigate neurophysiological and autonomic responses associated with mild and major depressive disorders. The protocol integrates self-referential and non-self-referential linguistic stimuli with synchronized recordings from electroencephalography, electrocardiography, photoplethysmography, seismocardiography, electrodermal activity, respiration, continuous noninvasive blood pressure, and eye tracking. Participants are prescreened using standardized instruments (BDI-II, PHQ-9, and MINI) or through self-reports, and complete a 2.5 to 3-hour laboratory task that probes implicit mental health conditions through 3–4-sentence vignettes that concluded with an emotionally-salient critical word designed to align with symptoms of depression (e.g., anhedonia, fatigue). Stimuli are presented using PsychoPy and synchronized with all physiological systems through hardware and software triggers. The protocol captures high-temporal-resolution data reflecting both central and peripheral nervous system activity in response to the critical word, enabling the identification of objective markers associated with depressive symptom severity. PRESCRIBE has been implemented across three research sites, generating a rich multimodal dataset from individuals with and without depression. This protocol supports mechanistic studies of cognitive-emotional processing and facilitates the development of scalable, non-invasive tools for early detection and monitoring of depressive disorders, including wearable-sensor applications in clinical and real-world environments.