Comment Answers from a psychophysiologist (Score 1) 263
Repeat my job title 3 times fast.
GSR measures measures skin conductance, and perspiration is not an objection to the measure, but is the cause of the measure itself. The EDG sensors are placed over major sweat glands (usually on the palm of the hand or on the fingertips). What is going on in this measure is that a very small electrical current (a few microvolts, less than is being produced by muscle contractions) is introduced and the resistance is of that current is measured. Changes in resistance occur due to changes in skin conductance which, for the most part, are due to minor perspiration changes.
The reason this measure is used is because the sweat glands are part of the autonomic nervous system. The greatest things that affect this (besides increase to body temperature) are attention, emotional arousal (which is really just attention), and respiration.
So, decreased respiration and decreased physical/emotional arousal will predictably reduce skin conductance. There are individual differences, however these are calibrated for.
I'm personally not into biofeedback, but there are cases where it can be effective for training, especially relaxation. This is just a public display of a relaxation training technique that has been used for quite awhile. In many biofeedback clinics they will use this to have a person control the brightness of a light, or simply move a line on the screen. The object is to get the person to understand how they can control their own body states to get to a desired result.
As somebody mentioned earlier, there are other ways to do so. Meditation is (extremely basically) the end result of learning how to control body states to relax. It uses internal cues while biofeedback uses external cues.
The desired end result of biofeedback training is the same. Once the person understands how to get their body to the relaxed state (ie learn how to get the external object to the certain state) they can later produce the same results without the game. IE: another form of meditation, just one that is more externally cognitive.
GSR measures measures skin conductance, and perspiration is not an objection to the measure, but is the cause of the measure itself. The EDG sensors are placed over major sweat glands (usually on the palm of the hand or on the fingertips). What is going on in this measure is that a very small electrical current (a few microvolts, less than is being produced by muscle contractions) is introduced and the resistance is of that current is measured. Changes in resistance occur due to changes in skin conductance which, for the most part, are due to minor perspiration changes.
The reason this measure is used is because the sweat glands are part of the autonomic nervous system. The greatest things that affect this (besides increase to body temperature) are attention, emotional arousal (which is really just attention), and respiration.
So, decreased respiration and decreased physical/emotional arousal will predictably reduce skin conductance. There are individual differences, however these are calibrated for.
I'm personally not into biofeedback, but there are cases where it can be effective for training, especially relaxation. This is just a public display of a relaxation training technique that has been used for quite awhile. In many biofeedback clinics they will use this to have a person control the brightness of a light, or simply move a line on the screen. The object is to get the person to understand how they can control their own body states to get to a desired result.
As somebody mentioned earlier, there are other ways to do so. Meditation is (extremely basically) the end result of learning how to control body states to relax. It uses internal cues while biofeedback uses external cues.
The desired end result of biofeedback training is the same. Once the person understands how to get their body to the relaxed state (ie learn how to get the external object to the certain state) they can later produce the same results without the game. IE: another form of meditation, just one that is more externally cognitive.
