A Comprehensive Review of Psychophysiological Applications for Ecological Momentary Assessment in Psychiatric Populations

Psychophysiological assessment is a core method used in psychopathology research that has led to important insights in relation to the etiology and maintenance of many disorders. However, laboratory psychophysiology has limited ecological validity. This limitation has resulted in the field moving toward ambulatory recordings of psychophysiology paired with ecological momentary assessment (EMA). This review uses the results of a comprehensive review of EMA psychophysiology studies to discuss applications, advantages, limitations, and future use of this methodology, including electrocardiography, blood pressure, electroencephalography, and more. Mobile psychophysiology has several advantages, including ecological validity, temporal precision, and concurrent evaluation of internally and externally generated contexts that influence physiological response. However, it is limited by the difficulty of conducting such studies and reduced experimental control. Future research using EMA psychophysiology should aim to record over longer periods, better integrate with everyday life, determine the utility of ecological momentary interventions based on psychophysiology, create guidelines for standardization, and aim to establish reliability and validity. EMA psychophysiology is a promising direction for the field and provides novel avenues for research and treatment of psychopathology, although methodological shortcomings must be addressed.