Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 6, Issue 2, March 1978, Pages 111-120
Biological Psychology

Bilateral electrodermal activity depressive patients

https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-0511(78)90050-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Integrated bilateral skin conductance response and reactive lateral eye movements were studied in 19 depressive patients and 14 normal subjects during visual and verbal tasks and tone habituation sequence. Distinct right-left differences between depressed and normal subjects in reactive lateral eye movements were revealed. Both endogenous and reactive derpession patients were classified as ‘left-movers’. Marked bilateral differenceswere observed in electrodermal activity (EDA) in patients during verbal and visual tasks. In endogenous depression EDA was higher on the left hand compared with the right under all the conditions studied (visual and verbal, and tone habituation sequence). In reactive depression EDA was higher on the left side during the verbal task and tone habituation sequence and on the right side in the visual task. Neither result in reactive depression group attained significance. The results are interpreted as a reflection of a different pathophysiology underlying reactive and endogenous depression.

References (28)

  • J. Gruzelier et al.

    Bimodal and lateral asymmetry of skin conductance orienting activity in schizophrenics: Replication and evidence of lateral asymmetry in patients with depression and disorders of personality

    Biological Psychiatry

    (1974)
  • H. Hecaen et al.

    Le Cecite Psychique

    (1963)
  • F.A. Holloway et al.

    Unilateral brain damage and bilateral skin conductance levels in humans

    Psychophysiology

    (1969)
  • J. Levy et al.

    Perception of bilateral chimeric figures following hemispheric deconnection

    Brain

    (1972)
  • Cited by (54)

    • Psychophysiological States: the Ultradian Dynamics of Mind-Body Interactions

      2007, International Review of Neurobiology
      Citation Excerpt :

      The theory that depression is primarily a right‐hemisphere cerebral dysfunction is supported by many other studies, of which only a few are cited here. There is a lateral asymmetry of the electrodermal response amplitudes in depressed patients, with a decrease on the right side of the body and an increase on the left which indicates increased right‐hemispheric activity (Gruzelier and Venables, 1974; Myslobodsky and Horesh, 1978). The opposite of this is found in schizophrenia.

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Partially supported by a grant no. 015.9256 from the Psychobiological Society of Israel. Thanks are due to Dr. E. Lefkifker and Dr. DeMedina for their help with selection of patients and to I. Gilat for assistance in data processing. We express our appreciation to the critical reading and suggestions of Dr. B. Lubow and Dr. M. Weiner.

    View full text