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Overextinction of the Evoked Skin Conductance Response: An EEG Study
Author(s) -
Siddle David A. T.
Publication year - 1974
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.1469-8986.1974.tb01129.x
Subject(s) - habituation , skin conductance , alertness , psychology , audiology , electroencephalography , stimulus (psychology) , orienting response , developmental psychology , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , medicine , psychiatry , biomedical engineering
The present study was designed to investigate Sokolov's (1963) proposal that overextinction of the orienting response (OR) is related to sleep onset. A series of 80 auditory stimuli was presented to 22 male and female S s. Although re‐evocation of the skin conductance response (SCR) component of the OR occurred, in the majority of S s, after 40–50 stimulus presentations, this was not accompanied by any change in cortical alertness as measured by integrated EEG output in three frequency bands (2–4, 4–8, and 8–13 Hz). However, the results did indicate that S s displaying SCR return required more stimulus presentations before initial SCR habituation and displayed more spontaneous fluctuations in skin conductance during the prestimulus period than did non‐return S s. Within the return group, latency of SCR return was negatively related to both spontaneous activity during the prestimulus period and number of stimuli to initial habituation.