Frontal lobe lesions and electrodermal activity

Patients with damage to the ventromedial sector of the prefrontal cortices (vmpfc) develop a severe impairment in real life decision-making. The somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio et al. 1991, 1994) proposes that bodily states of arousal are markers for ongoing decision-making. Empirical evidence comes from experiments with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Vmpfc-Patients do not show any anticipatory skin conductance reaction (SCR) while performing the IGT (Bechara et al. 1997). Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies revealed association of discrete SCRs with activity in medial prefrontal cortex (Critchley et…