The rate of habituation of the autonomic nervous system response to unconditioned auditory stimuli in pathological gamblers — A pilot study

Abstract

Objective: The aims of this pilot study were to measure the rate of habituation of the skin blood flow (SBF), galvanic skin response (GSR) and pulse rate responses to a sequence of unconditioned auditory alerting stimuli in pathological gamblers and normal controls. It also aimed to measure the degree of neuroticism, extraversion and state and trait anxiety in pathological gamblers and normal controls. The significance of this is to study the investigation of the psychophysiology and personality characteristics of pathological gamblers, which may have implications for the relationship of pathological gambling to anxiety disorders.Method: Five subjects with pathological gambling without anxiety disorders or psychotropic medication and 5 normal controls were exposed to a sequence of 6 auditory stimuli, randomly generated but at least 2 minutes apart. Their SBF, GSR and pulse rate responses were measured to each of these stimuli using a laser doppler, GSR sensor and pulse transducer respectively. Their rates...