Decomposition of skin conductance data by means of nonnegative deconvolution

(Benedek & Kaernbach, 2010)

This article proposes a method to divide skin conductance data into tonic and phasic components through a process of deconvolution. The authors give a detailed account of how skin conductance occurs (from a physiological standpoint) and how skin conductance should be measured. Important considerations for measurement of skin conductance are:

1. SCR latency (i.e., time from stimulus onset to SCR onset),
2. rise time (time from SCR onset to SCR peak),
3. half recovery time (time from SCR peak to 50% recovery of SCR amplitude).

The authors give a very useful and detailed account of the physiological processes involved and the algorithms used.

In the study itself, the stimulus the researchers used, was audio stimulus. The sample used was 41 in total. In their analysis, they followed a methodological step-wise procedure ; This involved a Decomposition procedure (consisting of estimation of the tonic component, nonnegative deconvolution of phasic SC data, segmentation of the driver and remainder and reconstruction of the SC data).

MY NOTES

1. Gives a good description of the mechanisms (and brain regions involved) in skin conductance. (under heading of physiology of sweat secretion p. 647)
2. Gives a detailed account of the biology involved and the way it should be measured.
3. SC measures arousal according to these researchers

Benedek, M., & Kaernbach, C. (2010). Decomposition of skin conductance data by means of nonnegative deconvolution. Psychophysiology, 47(4), 647–658. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00972.x