Neurophysiological response to emotional faces with increasing intensity of fear: a skin conductance response study

Since the 1990s, affective neurosciences have aimed to identify the neurophysiological underpinnings of depressive disorders. Despite the large number of studies, the results have been inconclusive. We sought to test an experimental paradigm that combined emotional processing and electrophysiological response. Healthy volunteers were presented with emotional faces that depicted variable intensities of fear and their skin conductance response was recorded through digital electrodes. By using this paradigm we found a pattern of linear association between electrodermal activity and increasing intensity of negative emotional stimuli, suggesting that this paradigm may be soon employed in a clinical population and shed light on the neurophysiological substrates of affective disorders.