Toward stressor-free stress estimation: The integrated information theory explains the information dynamics of stress

Recent neurological studies have revealed several detailed stress mechanisms. However, the latent variables behind stress study still interpret stress responses as difficult. Therefore, we propose a stressor-free method of stress evaluation using Integrated Information Theory (IIT) to address these issues. We conducted experiments inducing acute stress responses against tasks with three levels of difficulty, easy, moderate, and difficult, to verify the IIT in stress study. The moderate condition was related to active coping with stress. By contrast, the easy and difficult conditions are related to passive stress coping. Especially, the easy condition seemed to cause boredom. Our results revealed that the degree of entangled system fluctuation was associated with the subjective ratings for the tasks. Interestingly, our method could also evaluate stress as a state of boredom that had not received much research attention. Our method can be an alternative stress estimation method to overcome the latent variable problem. [Display omitted] •IIT quantifies entangled information among bio-signals relevant to stress responses•IIT index distinguishes responses to tasks with different levels of difficulty•IIT index is associated with subjective ratings reflecting psychological valence•IIT index identifies responses derived from the state of boredom Neuroscience, Psychology, computational neuroscience