Laterality of pain and migraine distinguished by interictal rates of habituation of electrodermal responses to visual and auditory stimuli

J. Gruzelier, ed. / Ps_ychophysiology Society abstracts

threshold. area and personality aspect of and high

SEPs were analysed using peak to peak, perimeter measures. The amount of SEP correlations was small but significant, the SEP waveform analysed. In general, sensation seeking were related to smaller

17

root mean square, absolute variance accounted for by and depended upon which high psychoticism (EPQ) SEPs.

Reference Buchsbaum, M.S., Haier, R.J. & Johnson, J. (1983). Augmenting and reducing: Individual differences in evoked potentials. In A. Gale & J. Edwards (Eds.), Physiological correlates of Human behauiour (Vol. 3, pp. 117-137). London: Academic Press.

LATERALITY

OF PAIN AND MIGRAINE

DISTINGUISHED

BY INTERICTAL RATES OF HABITUATION RESPONSES TO VISUAL AND AUDITORY

OF ELECTRODERMAL STIMULI

John GRUZELIER, Thalia NIKOLAU, John CONNOLLY, Richard PEATFIELD, Paul DAVIES, and Frank CLIFFORD-ROSE Department of Psychiatry & Academic Department of Neuro-Science, Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School, London, U.K.

Patients with frequent attacks of classical migraine were examined for evidence of a neurogenic predispositional factor during the interictal phase. In the first study, female migraineurs with consistently left or right-sided pain were compared for rates of habituation in bilateral electrodermal responses to unpatterned flashes. In contrast to healthy volunteers and patients with tension headache, migraineurs were characterised by a bipolarity in orienting responses. Left-sided pain was associated with reduced responsiveness and fast habituation, while right-sided pain was associated with increased responsiveness and slow habituation. The results were replicated in an auditory study dividing subjects as before according to the laterality of pain and including common as well as classical migraine. No relationships were found between extremes of habituation and demographic or clinical factors apart from laterality of pain. The results suggest that an imbalance in hemispheric activation is a predispositional factor in migraine. When considered in conjunction with clinical features of the migraine syndrome and excessive EEG desynchronisation to photic driving in migraineurs, a defective regulatory

mechanism located in the nonspecific thalamo-cortical system is implicated. The results also provide support for a model of cerebral asymmetry and rate of habituation in the electrodermal system (Gruzelier, Eves, & Connolly, 1981).

Reference Gruzelier, J.H., electrodermaf

BILATERAL

Eves, F.F., & Connolly, J.F. (1981). Habituation and phasic reactivity in the system: Reciprocal hemispheric influences. ~~~l~~~f~~jru~Ps~~holo~, 9.313-31-f.

FINGER PULSE VOLUME

AND MOOD

John JAMIESON

The relationship of mood to bilateral finger pulse volume (FPV) was examined in two experiments. In the first experiment, 19 female and 16 male right-handed subjects took part in a mood induction procedure while FPV was recorded from photoplethysmographic transducers attached to the left and right middle fingers. A significant (0.05) mood by hand interaction was found, indicating relatively less blood flow to the left side than the right during the induced moods of depression and anxiety than during euphoria. The second experiment using 20 female and 8 male right-handed subjects failed to replicate this interaction. However, correlational analyses revealed that during the euphoric mood, subjects having relatively less blood flow to the left side rated their mood as significantly (0.05) more depressed, angry, lonely, and apathetic. These results may reflect an inhibition of blood flow to the left hand during negative emotions, due to the greater involvement of the right cerebral hemisphere in negative emotional states (Campbell, 1982).

Reference Campbell,

R. (1982).

The lateralisation

Pxvchologl?. 19. 211-229.

of emotion:

A critical

review.

Infernufiod

Journal

of