Skin Conductance And Basics Of Electrodermal Response

Skin conductanceSkin conductance is a scientific term also known as electrodermal or galvanic skin response. It’s a natural quality that also has physical and mental medical applications. The human skin conducts electricity better when physiologically aroused. This reaction is measurable by specific devices.

Emotional Response

Either internal or external stimuli might cause a physiological response called arousal. The term is broad and is one part of an emotional response. For example, skin conductance could be measured in response to stress or other kinds of emotion. Scientific studies have demonstrated that this reaction can correlate to memory and focus.

Skin Conductance Examples

It might be easier to understand this skin property with examples of things that can increase or decrease it. For example, people tend to have lower measures when they are asleep. The measures of electrical activity tend to be high when people are mentally active.

Examples of high arousal include the stress of an increased workload, even if it’s not especially difficult. Scientists have found that skin conductance increases after giving subjects a list of math problems, even if they aren’t challenging.

Can People Control Skin’s Electrical Activity?

meditating and doing deep breathing

Some people can control the electrical response of their skin, but most people can’t or don’t do this. Devices such as galvactivators glow with aroused skin. These are used during experiments to visualize electrical conductivity.

For example, people might do calming exercises to reduce arousal. They might imagine exciting or stressful situations to increase their arousal. In that way, it is possible to exert conscious control over this response. So yes, people actually can control their skin’s electrical activity to some degree. In reality, most people don’t do this. It takes some training and practice to exert this control. Both the BioScan MSA and BioScan SRT can help measure these responses.  Please contact us to learn more on how BioScan can be integrated into your practice.

 

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