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March 24, 2026
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Review

Digital phenotyping for assessment and prediction of interoception, chronic stress, and self-regulation in adults: a scoping review

Publicated to: Frontiers in Digital Health. 8 1710891- - 2026-02-09 8(), DOI: 10.3389/fdgth.2026.1710891

Authors:

Alvarez-Ambrosio, Marta; Chausa, Paloma; Moreno-Blanco, Diego; Roca-Ventura, Alba; Oropesa, Ignacio; Cattaneo, Gabriele; Sanchez-Gonzalez, Patricia; Solana-Sanchez, Javier; Gomez, Enrique J
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Affiliations

Hosp Univ 12 Octubre, Inst Invest Hosp Octubre 12 imas12, Madrid, Spain - Author
Inst Invest Ciencies Salut Germans Trias & Pujol, Badalona, Spain - Author
Inst Salud Carlos III, Ctr Invest Biomed Red Bioingn Biomat & Nanomed, Madrid, Spain - Author
Inst Univ Neurorehabil Adscrit UAB, Inst Guttmann, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Biomed Technol, Biomed Engn & Telemed Ctr, ETSI Telecomunicac, Madrid, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Introduction Digital phenotyping, the real-time quantification of human phenotype in situ via digital devices, offers opportunities to understand how behavior change interventions influence brain and mental health. Interoception, chronic stress, and self-regulation are key domains, benefiting from real-world, continuous assessment beyond what traditional methods can provide.Objective The aim of this scoping review was to map and synthesize the literature of the last five years on the use of digital phenotyping to measure or predict interoception, chronic stress, and self-regulation in adults. We focused on the types of devices and sensors employed, the psychological domains targeted, the nature of the data collected, feature extraction, data processing methods, and technological platforms utilized.Methods Following Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, complemented with Google Scholar. Eligibility criteria included studies published since 2018, using smartphones or commercial wearables to assess or predict interoception, chronic stress, or self-regulation in adults.Results From 850 retrieved records, 18 studies met inclusion criteria. Of these, 11 addressed chronic stress or stress reactivity, five self-regulation, and two interoception. Thirteen studies used wearable devices, three used smartphones, and two combined both approaches. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) via smartphones was applied in eight studies. Heart rate variability (HRV) was the most common physiological measure (n = 14), followed by electrodermal activity and heart rate (n = 4 each). Nine studies analyzed behavioral data, including smartphone use, sleep, and activity. Six studies applied machine learning models, though only three reported classification accuracy (56.8%-79%). Eight used statistical methods to link features with stress or interoception, while four examined self-regulation using predefined features without identifying new biomarkers.Discussion This review highlights that the field is still in its early stages, with most work focused on chronic stress and predominantly reliant on wearable devices. Integration of smartphone sensing and long-term monitoring remains limited, and analytical performance is modest. Nevertheless, the ubiquity of smartphones and wearables positions digital phenotyping as a promising, scalable approach for assessing brain and mental health in daily life. Future research should emphasize multimodal, longer-term data collection, innovative analytic methods, and transparent reporting.
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Keywords

Behavior-changeBrain healthChronic stressDigital phenotypingDiseaseFocusHealthHeart-rate-variabilityInteroceptionMechanismsMental healthPsychopathologyScienceSelf-regulationSensorsSmartphoneTechnologiesWearable device

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Frontiers in Digital Health due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2026, it was in position 33/188, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Health Care Sciences & Services.

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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-07:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 4.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 4 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (ALVAREZ AMBROSIO, MARTA) and Last Author (GOMEZ AGUILERA, ENRIQUE JAVIER).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GOMEZ AGUILERA, ENRIQUE JAVIER.

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Awards linked to the item

The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This research work was partially funded by the PID2022-139298OB-C21 and PID-2022-139298OA-C22 projects, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, European FEDER program (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE).
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