Date: March 24 2020
Summary: What electrodermal activity is and its pros and cons as a biomarker
Keywords: ##zettel #biomarker #biology #physiology #health #signal #signalprocessing #stress #archive
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Electrodermal activity (EDA) broadly refers to any electrical activity across the dermis of the skin (the dermis being the outermost layer of the skin). Whenever the body experiences stress – this could be in the form of an ambient temperature change, physical activity, etc. – the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) increases sudomotor innervation, which leads to increases in EDA and sweating. The SNS is directly influenced by parts of the brain responsible for emotional response – the hypothalamus and limbic system. Because of this codependency, EDA is commonly used to study stress and other affective behavior (mood, disorders, etc.).
EDA has been used to study the following sort of conditions:
Arousal in Emotion [1]
Attention [2]
Decision-making [3]
Pain [4]
Stress [5]
Autism [6]
Phobias [7]
Panic Disorder [8]
Attention Deficit Disorders [9]
Side Effects from Cancer Treatments [10]
The use cases of EDA is further explored by Boucsein et. al. in their book, Electrodermal Activity. [11]
Furthermore, EDA is a generalization of the overall signal – in reality, this signal is often decomposed into Skin Conductance Response (SCR) and Skin Conductance Level (SCL).
Zelko, Jacob. What Is Electrodermal Activity?. https://jacobzelko.com/03242020003215-eda-explained. March 24 2020.
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[11] W. Boucsein, Electrodermal Activity. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2012. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1126-0.