Skin conductance activity measurements for exploring emotional processing and emotional regulatory capacities in normative populations: An integrated review

Abstract

Emotional regulation is defined as the processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional responses in order to accomplish one’s goal. Abnormalities in emotional regulation capacities are the hallmark of mood and anxiety disorders where the abnormal persistence of subjective, mostly negative, affective states are associated with the development and maintenance of these conditions. Psychophysiological recordings provide a complimentary objective measurement of emotional regulatory capacities independent of subjective reports. Psychophysiological variables of major scientific interest during affective picture processing have been electrodermal activity, more specifically skin conductance changes as indexes of autonomic nervous system activity. The present integrative literature review presents a critical synthesis of the literature findings so far aiming to delineate further the possible effects of visually presented stimuli on skin conductance activity correlates of emotional processing and emotional regulatory capacities in normative populations. Further investigation of clinical populations across acute or remitted mood states (e.g. bipolar disorder) is critically urged since it could provide valuable insight into the cognitive and neural underpinnings of emotion regulatory processes in different clinical disorders and healthy populations.