Neural Activity Relating to Generation and Representation of Galvanic Skin Conductance Responses: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Abstract

Central feedback of peripheral states of arousal influences motivational behavior and decision making. The sympathetic skin conductance response (SCR) is one index of autonomic arousal. The precise functional neuroanatomy underlying generation and representation of SCR during motivational behavior is undetermined, although it is impaired by discrete brain lesions to ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and parietal lobe. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity associated with spontaneous fluctuations in amplitude of SCR, and activity corresponding to generation and afferent representation of discrete SCR events. Regions that covaried with increased SCR included right orbitofrontal cortex, right anterior insula, left lingual gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, and left cerebellum. At a less stringent level of significance, predicted areas in bilateral medial prefrontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobule covaried with SCR. Generation of discrete SCR events was associated with significant activity in left medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral extrastriate visual cortices, and cerebellum. Activity in right medial prefrontal cortex related to afferent representation of SCR events. Activity in bilateral medial prefrontal lobe, right orbitofrontal cortex, and bilateral extrastriate visual cortices was common to both generation and afferent representation of discrete SCR events identified in a conjunction analysis. Our results suggest that areas implicated in emotion and attention are differentially involved in generation and representation of peripheral SCR responses. We propose that this functional arrangement enables integration of adaptive bodily responses with ongoing emotional and attentional states of the organism.

Telling truth from lie in individual subjects with fast event‐related fMRI

“…Since the ACC was not among these regions, it is less likely to be predictive of Lie. Remarkably, the somatosensory association area (BA 40) and the insulae have been associated with the electrodermal response [Critchley et al, [2000]; Tranel and Damasio, [1994]]. In our experiment the insulae were activated in both Lie and Truth contrasts, but the activation in the Lie-Repeat contrast was anterior to the Truth-Lie contrast.…”

Evaluative priming reveals dissociable effects of cognitive versus physiological anxiety on action monitoring.

“…Moreover, because previous research already showed that skin conductance responses predicted the PES (Hajcak, McDonald, & Simons, 2003a), we additionally surmised that anxious arousal (Critchley, Elliott, Mathias, & Dolan, 2000;Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm, 1993), but not worry, could influence (i.e., augment) PES in our experiment. In other words, while we hypothesized that worry could interfere with the rapid affective tagging of actions selectively, we reckoned that anxious arousal could increase PES specifically, revealing a functional dissociation between these two components of anxiety during action monitoring.…”

Human amygdala activity during the expression of fear responses.

“…Additionally, the amygdala is not believed to be a necessary neural component underlying normal SCR fluctuations, as lesion data have shown that amygdala patients show intact SCR patterns (Tranel & Damasio, 1993, 1989. Furthermore, functional neuroimaging studies (Critchley, Elliot, Mathias, & Dolan, 2000;Patterson, Ungerleider, & Bandettini, 2002) investigating brain regions important for the general production and maintenance of SCR do not observe amygdala activity.…”