Journal article
Frontal lobe lesions and electrodermal activity: effects of significance
Neuropsychologia, Vol.37(11), pp.1227-1241
1999
DOI: 10.1016/S0028-3932(99)00020-2
PMID: 10530723
Abstract
Several studies have shown that cortical damage, especially to the right hemisphere and to frontal lobes, may attenuate skin conductance responses selectively to psychologically significant stimuli. We tested this hypothesis in 32 patients with frontal lesions, verified by computer assisted tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, and 45 healthy controls. Patients and controls were given a protocol which included a rest period, a series of innocuous tones, and a reaction time task. Patients were given a second protocol in which they viewed slides with positive and negative emotional content and neutral slides. Results showed attenuated electrodermal activity (EDA) during task instructions and smaller skin conductance responses to reaction-time stimuli in patients compared to controls but few differences under passive conditions or in orienting responses to simple tones. Patients with lateral prefrontal and paraventricular lesions were especially low in EDA in the reaction time task, and those with right and bilateral lesions in the cingulate gyrus and/or frontal operculum had attenuated EDA in both protocols. We conclude that the effects of certain frontal lesions are on the psychological response to significance which is indexed by EDA rather than directly on EDA per se.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Frontal lobe lesions and electrodermal activity: effects of significance
- Creators
- Theodore P Zahn - Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-9005, USAJordan Grafman - Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1440, Bethesda, MD 20892-1440, USADaniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, College of Medicine, and Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52442-1009, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Neuropsychologia, Vol.37(11), pp.1227-1241
- DOI
- 10.1016/S0028-3932(99)00020-2
- PMID
- 10530723
- NLM abbreviation
- Neuropsychologia
- ISSN
- 0028-3932
- eISSN
- 1873-3514
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 1999
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002594702771
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