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The skin conducts electricity and has electrical activity that fluctuates according to bodily conditions, known as the galvanic skin response. This response can be measured by passing a current through the body or measuring the current generated by the body. It is commonly used in lie detector tests and psychotherapy treatments, and is also used in touchscreen monitors.
All tissues in the human body, including the skin, have the ability to conduct electricity. In fact, this is how nerves work to transmit information from one part of the body to another. The skin also has electrical activity, which is constantly, slightly varying and can be measured and recorded. The electrical conductivity of the skin fluctuates according to certain bodily conditions and this fluctuation is called the galvanic skin response.
Sudden changes in emotions, such as fear, can trigger this response, as can other types of changes, such as hot flashes that are characteristic of menopause. The galvanic response of the skin can be represented graphically on a graph for observation, in the same way that the activity of the heart or brain is recorded. Even if this is the case, it’s impossible to tell the type of emotion or physical change that elicited the reaction just by looking at the graph.
Devices that measure this response are often referred to as feedback instruments, due in part to how this response is generated or sensed. If this response is “actively” measured, then a slight electric current is passed through the test subject’s body to measure conductivity. A passive test measures the current being generated by the person’s own body. The feedback from this is what constitutes the galvanic skin response measured.
The best known use for measuring electrical conductivity is as part of a polygraph or “lie detector” test. The body’s reaction is measurable by this and many other parameters when a person tells a lie. Consciously stating a falsehood is, in a physiological sense, stressful and unnatural. A change in the conductivity of the skin, as well as changes in breathing, heart rate, and sweating, is one of the body’s responses to the stress of lying.
Response measurement can also be an important element of some psychotherapy treatments, as well as behavior therapy. Research studies on stress and anxiety levels have also been conducted with attention to this response. Other purely scientific applications have also been found. A good example of this is the touchscreen monitor.
These screens work by sensing the electrical conductivity of the skin. Users of touchscreen monitors may have noticed that these devices perform poorly when wearing gloves. In fact, they may not work at all in this case, because the gloves insulate not only from heat transfer, but also from the sensing of electrical currents present in the skin.
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