Premium
Active Circuits for Direct Linear Measurement of Skin Resistance and Conductance
Author(s) -
Lowry Richard
Publication year - 1977
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.1469-8986.1977.tb01187.x
Subject(s) - skin conductance , conductance , electronic circuit , amplifier , voltage , transducer , nonlinear system , operational amplifier , negative resistance , control theory (sociology) , electrical engineering , computer science , engineering , physics , biomedical engineering , condensed matter physics , artificial intelligence , control (management) , cmos , quantum mechanics
Passive voltage‐divider circuitries typically used for measuring skin resistance and conductance provide only indirect measures of these variables. Although the resulting errors of nonlinearity may not be critical for some research purposes, there is no reason why they should be tolerated, because it is possible to design simple active circuitry which avoids the errors by measuring skin resistance and conductance directly. Two such circuits are presented: a) a variable‐gain voltage amplifier for direct linear measurement of skin resistance; and b) a current‐to‐voltage transducer for direct linear measurement of skin conductance. A combined working circuit, suitable for practical research applications, is also presented.