ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
Skin resistance refers to the electrical resistance of SKIN to electric current; SKIN CONDUCTANCE is the reverse of this, being a measure of electrical transmission across the skin. The term GALVANIC SKIN RESPONSE (after Luigi Galvani [1737-1798]) is synonymous with skin conductance. Skin conductance is typically measured on the palms of the hand (palmar conductance) but can also be measured on the forehead or elsewhere. It varies throughout the day, but increases when individuals are perspiring. It is taken to reflect activity in the SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM and is thought of as part of the FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT response. Psychologists have in the past used skin conductance as a measure of emotional AROUSAL (see also EMOTION), but considerable caution has to be exercised in doing this. Skin conductance is a crude measure, responsive to changes in a wide variety of psychological states and as such a poor measure with which to understand emotional states. See Grossman (1967) for discussion of the history of skin conductance.
Energy Medicine: Focus on Nonthermal Electromagnetic Therapies
Len Wisneski in The Scientific Basis of Integrative Health, 2017
William Tiller, working in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University, explored the electrical behavior of skin and concluded that careful measures can provide a great deal of information. The electrical measurement with probes of specific design is not limited solely to the properties of surface effects, such as sweat, which tend to dominate measurements of galvanic skin response. The evolving dielectric constant provides information on both the moisture and electrolyte properties of the tissue. Changes can be observed in both deep tissue or “bulk” properties in response to high frequencies and in surface properties in response to low frequencies. Small changes can be distinguished in single components of complex circuits in the tissues (Tiller, 1989). By the 1980s, three main modalities had emerged in the assessment of acupuncture points using electrical conductance measures: Hiroshi Motoyama's Apparatus for measuring the functions of the Meridians and corresponding Internal organs (AMI), Reinhold Voll's Dermatron, and Helmut Schimmel's Segment Electrograph—a description of each follows.
Social-Emotional Agnosias
Alexander R. Toftness in Incredible Consequences of Brain Injury, 2023
One interesting way that researchers have been able to measure expressive agnosia is through the use of electrodermal activity. Electrodermal activity refers to measuring the electrical conductivity of the skin as it changes over time, usually due to the production of small amounts of sweat. Essentially, when the average person views an image of a person making a negative facial expression such as fear, their skin sweats a little bit, causing electrodermal activity to increase slightly. However, in some people with brain injuries their skin does not react in this way to negative facial expressions, indicating that perhaps they are not fully understanding the fear on the fearful person's face (Hopkins et al., 2002).
Dog Phobia Intervention: A Case Study in Improvement of Physiological and Behavioral Symptoms in A Child with Intellectual Disability
Published in Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 2020
Kristen Dovgan, Casey J. Clay, Savannah A. Tate
The intervention goal was to increase tolerance for and exposure to a dog and to eliminate elopement in the presence of a dog while improving emotional self-regulation skills. The behavioral dependent variables were elopement and compliance with goals. Elopement was operationally defined as any instance when Amal traveled through a door or pulled on a door handle without permission. Compliance with goals was defined as the participant independently following the goal instruction (i.e., without the use of hand-over-hand prompt). The trained intervention implementers placed goals as demands, and Amal had to comply with the demand to access reinforcement; therefore, various target behaviors served as components of compliance. The physiological dependent variables were galvanic skin response, heart rate variability, and peripheral skin temperature.
Progesterone for treatment of symptomatic menopausal women
Published in Climacteric, 2018
Brain norepinephrine in animals caused narrowing of the core temperature’s ‘thermoneutral zone’ (range of comfortable basal temperatures – no sweating/shivering) that characterizes all with VMS. Research says that E2 withdrawal from an E2-treated animal causes release of brain norepinephrine15. This is followed by narrowing of the thermoneutral zone to nearly zero, a heat dissipation response15 and rapidly increased galvanic skin response. VMS episodes are associated with massive release of neuroendocrine, cytokine and stress hormones31 and thus may have a clinical ‘aura’ of weakness, dizziness or nausea, especially in perimenopausal women. Recent evidence suggests that the hypothalamic control processes involved in the pulsatility of gonadotropin releasing hormone may relate to VMS. A receptor blocker of neurokinin 3 that slows luteinizing hormone pulsatility appears to act rapidly and with sustained response to decrease VMS37.
Physiological Monitoring to Enhance Clinical Hypnosis and Psychotherapy
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2020
Electrodermal activity is the ambient electrical activity in the skin. An electrodermograph measures skin electrical activity directly (skin conductance and skin potential) and indirectly (skin resistance) using electrodes placed over the digits or hand and wrist (Shaffer et al., 2019). The biofeedback modality measuring electrodermal activity has historically been labeled as the galvanic skin response (GSR), skin conductance and skin potential (SC and SP), and electrodermography (EDR). In monitoring electrodermal activity using GSR and SC, the biofeedback device applies a low-level electrical current to one site on the skin and measures how easily it travels through the skin to a second electrode. SP detects the voltage difference between sweat glands and internal tissues.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Autonomic Nervous System
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychophysiology
- Sympathetic Nervous System
- Sweat Gland
- Skin
- Parasympathetic Nervous System
- Arousal
- Stimulus
- Polygraph