Heritability of skin conductance reactivity in children

• This study assessed the genetic covariance between various measures of phasic skin conductance activity, including response amplitude and frequency of responding. A few studies have investigated the etiology of skin conductance reactivity (e.g., Lykken et al. Psychophysiology 25:4–15, 1988), but none have been conducted with children. Given that deficits in skin conductance orienting are associated with psychosis-proneness and conduct problems, it is important to understand the genetic and environmental contributions to skin conductance reactivity in children. Subjects for this study were 800 male and female twins, aged 9–10, who passively listened to stimuli during an orienting task. The stimuli consisted of tones of moderate intensity (75 dB), as well as different types of socially meaningful sounds (e.g. baby cries and speech-like stimuli). Skin conductance response magnitude, averaged across all stimuli, was substantially heritable. Genetic modelfitting was used to determine if the variation in reactivity across the different types of stimuli can be explained by a single latent factor. Furthermore, there was a moderate phenotypic correlation between a continuous measure of reactivity (i.e. response amplitude) and a more categorical measure of skin conductance (i.e. frequency of responding). This association was not genetically mediated, suggesting a theoretical distinction between hyporeactivity and nonresponding.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Psykologi

Psychology

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)