Skin Resistance Measurements Research Articles

Investigation of psychophysiologic relationships with skin resistance measures

Investigation of psychophysiologic relationships with skin resistance measures

Measurement of Electrical Skin Resistance during Interviews

Previous investigators have shown that the level of a patient's electrical skin resistance before and after a psychotherapeutic interview is related to the content of the interview (4, 5). Their findings make it reasonable to expect that changes in skin resistance within an interview will throw some light on the nature of the moment-to-moment interaction between patient and therapist. The present paper describes the development of apparatus for making continuous measurements of skin resistance during therapeutic interviews. ELECTRODES In attempting to measure skin resistance continuously, we soon discovered that none of the commercially available electrode-holders is satisfactory, because every electrode-holder is made so that it either fails to maintain firm contact with the skin or causes the patient so much discomfort that the psychotherapy is disrupted. Thus, we found it necessary to design one. Our electrode-holder, constructed as shown in Fig. 1, keeps the electrodes in firm contact with the skin. At first we made the electrode-holder of Bake

Paroxysmal positional vertigo following head injury; studied by electronystagmography and skin resistance measurements.

Paroxysmal positional vertigo following head injury; studied by electronystagmography and skin resistance measurements.

ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE OF THE SKIN

VARIOUS factors influencing the measurement of skin resistance have been repeatedly investigated. Various types of apparatus, electrodes and electrode pastes have been used in these investigations. Variations in skin resistance have often been observed which were not entirely understood. We have felt that by a better understanding of the variations in the technic of measuring skin resistance more consistent and comparable results could be obtained. The use of a standardized technic by different investigators would be helpful. Several years ago we built an apparatus for measuring the galvanic skin response (psychogalvanic reflex). This apparatus made use of a Wheatstone bridge circuit, in which a pulsating, direct current of constant amperage flowed continuously through a subject who was connected into one of the arms of the bridge. Not long after we started to use this apparatus for investigating the galvanic skin response to auditory stimuli it was observed that it was

ELECTRICAL SKIN RESISTANCE TEST IN EVALUATION OF PERIPHERAL NERVE INJURIES

THE MEASUREMENT of electrical skin resistance has been recommended by Richter and Katz1and Jasper and Robb2as a practical test in the evaluation of injuries of peripheral nerves. This method, in contrast to the sensory examination, does not depend on the cooperation of the patient. It can therefore be used with uncooperative, or even unconscious, patients and may give objective results in cases of hysteria or suspected malingering. Richter and Katz examined 10 patients with injury of the ulnar nerve and found a correlation of skin resistance with sensory changes in most of them. Of the 27 patients with various peripheral nerve lesions studied by Jasper and Robb, all but 2 showed a correlation of the areas of increased skin resistance with the areas of sensory loss. This method is now being used on a large scale in the evaluation of nerve injuries and in the study

A Note on Z-Scores as a Technique for Treating Serial Measurements of Electrical Skin Resistance

A Note on Z-Scores as a Technique for Treating Serial Measurements of Electrical Skin Resistance

A NOTE ON Z-SCORES AS A TECHNIQUE FOR TREATING SERLAL MEASUREMENTS OF ELECTRICAL SKIN RESISTANCE

During the course of an investigation (2) involving serial measurements of apparent electrical skin resistance in human infants and adults, It became evident that subjects whose general level of resistance was low maintained a nearly constant level of resistance throughout a two-hour observation period. On the other hand when the resistance was high large fluctuations were noted. When the means in ohms of series of measures taken at five-minute intervals were correlated with the standard deviations of the deflections, the coefficient of correlation was .83 for infants and adults, and .94 for adults only. It follows that series of measures from differing levels may not be compared unless the data have been rendered comparable. Of the several techniques for comparing data which show a constant relationship, standard measures or Z-scores, as Kelley (1) has termed them, have been chosen because the mean and standard deviation from which they are derived are the most reliable measures of central tendency and variability.