Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bilateral Skin Conductance Responses to Emotional Faces

  • Published:
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Skin conductance responses (SCR) measure objective arousal in response to emotionally-relevant stimuli. Central nervous system influence on SCR is exerted differentially by the two hemispheres. Differences between SCR recordings from the left and right hands may therefore be expected. This study focused on emotionally expressive faces, known to be processed differently by the two hemispheres. Faces depicting neutral, happy, sad, angry, fearful or disgusted expressions were presented in two tasks, one with an explicit emotion judgment and the other with an age judgment. We found stronger responses to sad and happy faces compared with neutral from the left hand during the implicit task, and stronger responses to negative emotions compared with neutral from the right hand during the explicit task. Our results suggest that basic social stimuli generate distinct responses on the two hands, no doubt related to the lateralization of social function in the brain.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baron-Cohen, S., Golan, O., & Ashwin, E. (2009). Can emotion recognition be taught to children with autism spectrum conditions? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3567–3574.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bechara, A., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., Adolphs, R., Rockland, C., & Damasio, A. R. (1995). Double dissociation of conditioning and declarative knowledge relative to the amygdala and hippocampus in humans. Science, 269(5227), 1115–1118.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, R. J., & Cipolotti, L. (2000). Impaired social response reversal. A case of ‘acquired sociopathy’. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 123(Pt 6), 1122–1141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borod, J. C. (1992). Interhemispheric and intrahemispheric control of emotion: A focus on unilateral brain damage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60(3), 339–348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borod, J. C., Koff, E., Perlman Lorch, M., & Nicholas, M. (1986). The expression and perception of facial emotion in brain-damaged patients. Neuropsychologia, 24(2), 169–180.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brand, G., Millot, J. L., & Biju, C. (2000). Comparison between monorhinal and birhinal olfactory stimulations in bilateral electrodermal recordings. Comptes rendus de l’Academie des sciences. Serie III, Sciences de la vie, 323(11), 959–965.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Britton, J. C., Phan, K. L., Taylor, S. F., Welsh, R. C., Berridge, K. C., & Liberzon, I. (2006). Neural correlates of social and nonsocial emotions: An fMRI study. Neuroimage, 31(1), 397–409.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J., Ekman, P., Saron, C. D., Senulis, J. A., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: Emotional expression and brain physiology. I. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(2), 330–341.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. A., Fedio, P., Smith, B. D., Aureille, E., & Martin, A. (1992). Lateralized mediation of arousal and habituation: Differential bilateral electrodermal activity in unilateral temporal lobectomy patients. Neuropsychologia, 30(12), 1053–1063.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gakhal, B., & Senior, C. (2008). Examining the influence of fame in the presence of beauty: An electrodermal ‘neuromarketing’ study. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 7(4–5), 331–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glascher, J., & Adolphs, R. (2003). Processing of the arousal of subliminal and supraliminal emotional stimuli by the human amygdala. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 23(32), 10274–10282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gur, R. C., Sara, R., Hagendoorn, M., Marom, O., Hughett, P., Macy, L., et al. (2002). A method for obtaining 3-dimensional facial expressions and its standardization for use in neurocognitive studies. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 115(2), 137–143.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Habel, U., Windischberger, C., Derntl, B., Robinson, S., Kryspin-Exner, I., Gur, R. C., et al. (2007). Amygdala activation and facial expressions: Explicit emotion discrimination versus implicit emotion processing. Neuropsychologia, 45(10), 2369–2377.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hariri, A. R., Tessitore, A., Mattay, V. S., Fera, F., & Weinberger, D. R. (2002). The amygdala response to emotional stimuli: A comparison of faces and scenes. Neuroimage, 17(1), 317–323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heilman, K. M., Schwartz, H. D., & Watson, R. T. (1978). Hypoarousal in patients with the neglect syndrome and emotional indifference. Neurology, 28(3), 229–232.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hempel, R. J., Tulen, J. H., van Beveren, N. J., van Steenis, H. G., Mulder, P. G., & Hengeveld, M. W. (2005). Physiological responsivity to emotional pictures in schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 39(5), 509–518.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, E. J., & van Honk, J. (2006). Toward a framework for defective emotion processing in social phobia. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 11(3), 307–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, F. A., & Parsons, O. A. (1969). Unilateral brain damage and bilateral skin conductance levels in humans. Psychophysiology, 6(2), 138–148.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubert, B. E., Wicker, B., Monfardini, E., & Deruelle, C. (2009). Electrodermal reactivity to emotion processing in adults with autistic spectrum disorders. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 13(1), 9–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimura, Y., Yoshino, A., Takahashi, Y., & Nomura, S. (2004). Interhemispheric difference in emotional response without awareness. Physiology & Behavior, 82(4), 727–731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane, R. D., Reiman, E. M., Bradley, M. M., Lang, P. J., Ahern, G. L., Davidson, R. J., et al. (1997). Neuroanatomical correlates of pleasant and unpleasant emotion. Neuropsychologia, 35(11), 1437–1444.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lang, P. J., Greenwald, M. K., Bradley, M. M., & Hamm, A. O. (1993). Looking at pictures: affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. Psychophysiology, 30(3), 261–273.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mangina, C. A., & Beuzeron-Mangina, J. H. (1996). Direct electrical stimulation of specific human brain structures and bilateral electrodermal activity. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 22(1), 1–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, L., Vrtunski, P. B., Kim, Y., & Boller, F. (1981). Arousal responses to emotional stimuli and laterality of lesion. Neuropsychologia, 19(1), 65–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Myslobodsky, M. S., & Rattok, J. (1977). Bilateral electrodermal activity in waking man. Acta Psychologica, 41(4), 273–282.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petrovic, P., Kalisch, R., Pessiglione, M., Singer, T., & Dolan, R. J. (2008). Learning affective values for faces is expressed in amygdala and fusiform gyrus. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 3(2), 109–118.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roman, F., Garcia-Sanchez, F. A., Martinez-Selva, J. M., Gomez-Amor, J., & Carrillo, E. (1989). Sex differences and bilateral electrodermal activity: A replication. Pavlovian Journal of Biological Science, 24(4), 150–155.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schulter, G., & Papousek, I. (1998). Bilateral electrodermal activity: Relationships to state and trait characteristics of hemisphere asymmetry. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 31(1), 1–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowden, J. S., Austin, N. A., Sembi, S., Thompson, J. C., Craufurd, D., & Neary, D. (2008). Emotion recognition in Huntington’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Neuropsychologia, 46(11), 2638–2649.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (1989). Intact electrodermal skin conductance responses after bilateral amygdala damage. Neuropsychologia, 27(4), 381–390.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (1994). Neuroanatomical correlates of electrodermal skin conductance responses. Psychophysiology, 31(5), 427–438.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tranel, D., Fowles, D. C., & Damasio, A. R. (1985). Electrodermal discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar faces: A methodology. Psychophysiology, 22(4), 403–408.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsunoda, T., Yoshino, A., Furusawa, T., Miyazaki, M., Takahashi, Y., & Nomura, S. (2008). Social anxiety predicts unconsciously provoked emotional responses to facial expression. Physiology & Behavior, 93(1–2), 172–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wingen, G. A., van Eijndhoven, P., Tendolkar, I., Buitelaar, J., Verkes, R. J., & Fernandez, G. (2010). Neural basis of emotion recognition deficits in first-episode major depression. Psychological Medicine, 41(7), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, G. H. (1964). The neural control of sweating. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zatorre, R. J., Jones-Gotman, M., Evans, A. C., & Meyer, E. (1992). Functional localization and lateralization of human olfactory cortex. Nature, 360(6402), 339–340.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zoccolotti, P., Scabini, D., & Violani, C. (1982). Electrodermal responses in patients with unilateral brain damage. Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology, 4(2), 143–150.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Sarah J. Banks

    Present address: Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, 888 West Bonneville Avenue, Las Vegas, NV, 89106, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Montreal Neurological Institute, 3801 University Street, Montreal, QC, H3A 2B4, Canada

    Sarah J. Banks, Jenny Bellerose, Danielle Douglas & Marilyn Jones-Gotman

Authors
  1. Sarah J. Banks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jenny Bellerose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Danielle Douglas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marilyn Jones-Gotman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah J. Banks.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Banks, S.J., Bellerose, J., Douglas, D. et al. Bilateral Skin Conductance Responses to Emotional Faces. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 37, 145–152 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-011-9177-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-011-9177-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation