A New Grid Technique for Studying the Electrodermal Correlates of Conditioned Suppression in the Unrestrained Rat

Abstract

Skin Conductance (SC) and Bar-pressing for a food reward were examined throughout discriminative CER training in two groups of rats. In one group of rats SC was measured through a traditional grid electrodermal measurement system. In the second group, the experimental group, SC was measured between each grid bar successively and a subdermal reference electrode, so that measurement artifacts inherent in grid systems of measurement were either reduced or eliminated in this group. Conditioned suppression of bar-pressing was accompanied by a great increase in S.C. in the experimental group. These results were attributed to peripheral and central response mechanisms regulating electrodermal activity.