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THE REDUCTION OF PALMAR SKIN POTENTIAL BY EPIDERMAL HYDRATION
Author(s) -
Fowles Don C.,
Venables P. H.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1970.tb02231.x
Subject(s) - chemistry , electrolyte , distilled water , sweat , polyethylene glycol , aqueous solution , chromatography , biochemistry , medicine , organic chemistry , electrode
Simultaneous measurements of palmar skin potential (SP) at four levels of epidermal hydration yielded a difference of 35 mv between the mean values for the least hydrated site (pretreated with polyethylene glycol) and the most hydrated site (pretreated with distilled water) during sweat gland activity. It was also demonstrated that there was a decline in SP during the first 15 min of recording with aqueous electrolyte which can be attributed to the application of an electrolyte to the skin. Thus the hydration effect appears to be a large, uncontrolled source of variance which must be brought under control if physiologically meaningful results are to be obtained with SP measurements. The hydration effect may offer an alternative interpretation of data previously cited as supporting the hypothesis that an epidermal membrane contributes to SP.