On the meaning of electrodermal nonresponding in schizophrenia.
The skin conductance responses of schizophrenics, neurotics and normals to orienting stimuli were examined. Only the schizophrenic group showed a high incidence of absence of skin conductance orienting responses. A subdivision of the schizophrenic sample into thosee who did not show any orienting response and those who responded more than three times revealed significant differences in a dichotic listening shadowing task and symptomatology. The schizophrenic nonresponders as compared to the responders made more errors of omission in the dichotic listening task and showed a symptom pattern of low spontaneous activity and withdrawal. The lack of skin conductance responses in some schizophrenics was interpreted as a protective mechanism.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology