KUMJ | VOL. 16 | NO. 2 | ISSUE 62 | APRIL-JUNE 2018
Galvanic Skin Response as a Simple Physiology Lab Teaching Tool- An Alternative Indicator of Sympathetic Arousal
Nepal O, Jha RK, Bhattarai A, Khadka P, Kapoor BK
Abstract: Background
Sympathetic arousal response due to rewarding emotion may not be considered
threat to the well-being but such arousal response evoked by fear or punishment can
be stressful. When such changes are recorded in lab as biological signals, induced
with appropriate stimulus, the observed response may serve as a good indicator
of homeostatic alteration. In this study, skin conductance was utilized to record
sympathetic response for cognitive load, by application of simple subtraction task.
Objective
To detect sympathetic arousal by utilization of galvanic skin response during mental
arithmetic task.
Method
Total of eighty two subjects, forty two female and forty male participated in the
study. Twenty two subjects were provided mental task to record skin conductance.
In sixty subjects, galvanic skin response, pulse rate, respiratory rate and temperature
were recorded by appropriate transducers to obtain baseline and task response to
detect differential recordings. Subjects performed the mental exercise of arithmetic
task (MAT) with transducer placed in upper limbs. Mean of averages for respective
variables were statistically calculated from obtained recordings.
Result
For measured galvanic skin response, 57 subjects showed increased skin conductance
(rise in amplitude) whereas, 25 subjects had no rise in amplitude (“A peak”) while
performing the mental arithmetic task, when compared to control recording.
However, in 20 subjects, pulse rate and respiratory rate showed significant rise
though, the change in the skin conductance was not significant.
Conclusion
Galvanic skin response is useful for demonstration of sympathetic activation induced
by simple mental subtraction task, and can be utilized along with vital parameters
mentioned in this study to discuss in vivo variation that exist as differential for core
and superficial sympathetic outflow among individuals.
Keyword : Arousal, Conductance, Galvanic, Mental, Sympathetic
