Dynamic causal modeling of spontaneous fluctuations in skin conductance.

Spontaneous fluctuations (SF) in skin conductance are often used to index sympathetic arousal and emotional states. SF are caused by sudomotor nerve activity (SNA), which is a direct indicator of sympathetic arousal. Here, we describe a dynamic causal model (DCM) of how SNA causes SF, and apply variational Bayesian model inversion to infer SNA, given empirically observed SF.

Negative feedback influences auditory recognition: behavioral and event-related potential evidence.

Stress induced by negative feedback is known to impair recognition memory, although little is known about its neural correlates. Immediately before an auditory recognition test, a negative- and positive-feedback group received different, faked scores about their performance in a Tower-of-Hanoi task. Negative feedback increased reaction times for correct rejections of new sounds.