Characterisation of the sympathetic skin response evoked by own-face recognition in healthy subjects

Bagnato, Sergio and Boccagni, Cristina and Prestandrea, Caterina and Galardi, Giuseppe (2010) Characterisation of the sympathetic skin response evoked by own-face recognition in healthy subjects. Functional Neurology; New Trends in Interventional Neurosciences, 25 (2). pp. 93-102. ISSN 1971-3274

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Abstract

The ability to recognise one’s own face is crucial for self-identity formation and it plays a key role in the development of social interactions. Our starting hypothesis was that own-face recognition may be a psychophysiological phenomenon capable of activating the vegetative system in a peculiar manner, via sympathetic pathways. To test this hypothesis we studied the sympathetic skin responses (SSRs) evoked in 18 healthy subjects by the image of their own faces and by six other different visual stimuli. The SSRs were enhanced when participants were shown their own faces. Both SSR area and SSR amplitude contributed to this phenomenon. This work may offer new insights into the psycho- physiological processes involved in own-face recognition; moreover, the SSR could be a useful tool for future studies of patients affected by neuropsychiatric disorders presenting impairment of own-face recognition or representation of self-identity

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Fusiform face area, own-face recognition, skin conductance, SSR, sympathetic system, vegetative system
Subjects:	600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 612 Fisiologia umana > 612.8 Funzioni nervose, funzioni sensorie (Classificare qui la Neurofisiologia, la Psicofisiologia) 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 616 Malattie (classificare qui la Clinica medica, la medicina basata sull'evidenza, la Medicina interna, la Medicina sperimentale) > 616.8 Malattie del sistema nervoso e disturbi mentali (Classificare qui la Neuropsichiatria, la Neurologia)
Depositing User:	Danilo Dezzi
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2012 10:29
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2012 10:29
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/3532

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