Stress, verbal cognitive activity and bilateral electrodermal responses

The simultaneous recording of bilateral electrodermal activity (skin potential responses) on both right and left hands (the reference electrode being located on the forearm under the skin) on 30 right-handed subjects during the reflection phase of a verbal cognitive task and a stressful situation showed that, contrary to the expectations related to the hypothesis of lateralization, the percentage of equal amplitude (right and left) SPRs is very high in both situations, and SPRs are significantly less lateralized in the stressful stiuation than in the verbal task.