Premium
HABITUATION OF THE ORIENTING REFLEX IN BRAIN DAMAGED PATIENTS
Author(s) -
Holloway Frank A.,
Parsons Oscar A.
Publication year - 1971
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.1469-8986.1971.tb00498.x
Subject(s) - habituation , orienting response , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , skin conductance , reflex , neuroscience , audiology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , biomedical engineering
Habituation and dishabituation of the heart rate, skin conductance, and alpha blocking components of the orienting reflex to an auditory stimulus were examined for brain‐damaged and non‐brain‐damaged Ss. The non‐brain‐damaged group displayed the expected habituation for all of these response variables but the brain‐damaged group displayed evidence of habituation only for the skin conductance measure. The brain‐damaged group also displayed higher initial skin conductance response amplitudes and smaller initial alpha blocking responses to the auditory stimulus than did the non‐brain‐damaged group. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for mechanisms of habituation and for other psychological deficits in brain‐damaged patients.