Habitual use of psychological coping strategies is associated with physiological stress responding during negative memory recollection in humans.

Research has identified a variety of strategies people use to cope with stress and that the adaptiveness of various strategies depends on the context in which they are used. However, important questions remain about the role of physiological stress response systems in supporting, influencing, or changing from coping strategies. This study works toward addressing this gap by examining associations between skin conductance level (SCL) and habitual use of coping strategies. It was hypothesized that more use of problem-focused strategies would be associated with SCL trajectories that were more stable and decreased less steeply, with the opposite trend hypothesized for more use of emotion-focused strategies. Participants were 188 college students (78% female) who reported their use of 14 coping strategies. SCL was recorded during recall of a negative family memory from childhood for five minutes. Trajectories of SCL during the recall were estimated with multilevel modeling. Greater self-distraction, planning, active coping, use of emotional support, and coping flexibility were related to trajectories of SCL that decreased less steeply and were more stable. Problem-focused coping and coping flexibility are, therefore, related to reduced SCL reactivity and promoting these skills may benefit mental health.

Linking autonomic nervous system reactivity with sleep in adolescence: Sex as a moderator.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate relations between autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity across the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches and multiple sleep parameters in adolescence. Participants were 244 adolescents (Mage  = 15.79 years old, SD = 9.56 months; 67.2% White/European-American, 32.8% Black/African-American). Parasympathetic activity was indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) withdrawal and sympathetic activity was indexed by skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-r), which were examined in response to a laboratory-based stressor (star-tracing task). Sleep was assessed with actigraphs in adolescents' homes for seven consecutive nights. Two sleep parameters were examined: sleep duration indexed by actual sleep minutes and sleep quality indexed by sleep efficiency from sleep onset to wake time. Regression analyses showed that more RSA withdrawal (lower RSA during task than baseline) was associated with shorter sleep, and more SCL-r (higher SCL during task than baseline) was associated with poorer sleep efficiency. Moderation analyses showed that associations linking RSA withdrawal with fewer sleep minutes and poorer sleep efficiency, and SCL-r with fewer sleep minutes were significant only for boys. Results illustrate that higher daytime physiological reactivity (increased RSA withdrawal and SCL-r) is negatively associated with sleep duration and efficiency for adolescents, especially boys.

Wearable Technologies for Mental Workload, Stress, and Emotional State Assessment during Working-Like Tasks: A Comparison with Laboratory Technologies.

The capability of monitoring user's performance represents a crucial aspect to improve safety and efficiency of several human-related activities. Human errors are indeed among the major causes of work-related accidents. Assessing human factors (HFs) could prevent these accidents through specific neurophysiological signals' evaluation but laboratory sensors require highly-specialized operators and imply a certain grade of invasiveness which could negatively interfere with the worker's activity. On the contrary, consumer wearables are characterized by their ease of use and their comfortability, other than being cheaper compared to laboratory technologies. Therefore, wearable sensors could represent an ideal substitute for laboratory technologies for a real-time assessment of human performances in ecological settings. The present study aimed at assessing the reliability and capability of consumer wearable devices (i.e., Empatica E4 and Muse 2) in discriminating specific mental states compared to laboratory equipment. The electrooculographic (EOG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals were acquired from a group of 17 volunteers who took part to the experimental protocol in which different working scenarios were simulated to induce different levels of mental workload, stress, and emotional state. The results demonstrated that the parameters computed by the consumer wearable and laboratory sensors were positively and significantly correlated and exhibited the same evidences in terms of mental states discrimination.

Sympathetic nervous system dominance during stress recovery mediates associations between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms in female adolescents.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is commonly diagnosed during adolescence and is associated with psychological stress reactivity and heightened physiological arousal. No study, however, has systematically examined which aspects of autonomic nervous system function mediate likely links between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Here, we assessed 163 adolescents (90 females; 12.29 ± 1.39 years) with respect to life stress and social anxiety symptoms, and measured respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance levels (SCL) during a psychosocial stress paradigm. We operationalized stress sensitivity as the residual variance in subjective stress severity after accounting for objective severity and changes in autonomic regulation using standardized change scores in RSA and SCL. In females only, stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with each other (p < .001) and with autonomic regulation during both reactivity and recovery (all ps < 0.04). Further, sympathetic nervous system dominance during recovery specifically mediated associations between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms (B = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.02-2.64). In contrast, in males, stress sensitivity, autonomic regulation during reactivity or recovery, and social anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated (all ps > 0.1). We interpret these results in the context of psychobiological models of SAD and discuss implications for interventions targeting autonomic processes.

Impact of brain arousal and time-on-task on autonomic nervous system activity in the wake-sleep transition.

BACKGROUND: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity has been shown to vary with the state of brain arousal. In a previous study, this association of ANS activity with distinct states of brain arousal was demonstrated using 15-min EEG data, but without directly controlling for possible time-on-task effects. In the current study we examine ANS-activity in fine-graded EEG-vigilance stages (indicating states of brain arousal) during two conditions of a 2-h oddball task while controlling for time-on-task. In addition, we analyze the effect of time-on-task on ANS-activity while holding the level of brain arousal constant. METHODS: Heart rate and skin conductance level of healthy participants were recorded during a 2-h EEG with eyes closed under simultaneous presentation of stimuli in an ignored (N = 39) and attended (N = 39) oddball condition. EEG-vigilance stages were classified using the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig (VIGALL 2.1). The time-on-task effect was tested by dividing the EEG into four 30-min consecutive time blocks. ANS-activity was compared between EEG-vigilance stages across the entire 2 h and within each time block. RESULTS: We found a coherent decline of ANS-activity with declining brain arousal states, over the 2-h recording and in most cases within each 30-min block in both conditions. Furthermore, we found a significant time-on-task effect on heart rate, even when arousal was kept constant. It was most pronounced between the first and all subsequent blocks and could have been a consequence of postural change at the beginning of the experiment. CONCLUSION: Our findings contribute to the validation of VIGALL 2.1 using ANS parameters in 2-h EEG recording under oddball conditions.

Contributions of Observed Parent Socialization of Coping and Skin Conductance Level Reactivity to Childhood Adjustment.

This research examined the longitudinal association between parent socialization of coping and child adjustment, as well as the moderating role of children's skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR). Participants were a community sample of children (n = 64, M age = 9.02, 54.5% females, 93.2% Caucasian) and their parent(s). Parent coping suggestions were observed while their child engaged in a stressful challenge task, during which the child's SCLR, a measure of children's physiological reactivity to stress, was also measured. Parent(s) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) at baseline and a 6-month follow-up to assess internalizing and externalizing problems. Results revealed that secondary control engagement suggestions predicted fewer internalizing problems over time. In addition, disengagement suggestions predicted fewer externalizing problems over time among children with high SCLR. This study provides evidence that parent coping suggestions serve as a resource that protects youth from developing adjustment problems.

A Scent of Anxiety: Olfactory Context Conditioning and its Influence on Social Cues.

Perception and evaluation of objects are highly dependent on surrounding contexts. Threatening contexts enhance processing of faces. Because odors are assumed to deliver strong contextual information, the present study aimed at demonstrating 1) that odors can constitute threat and safety contexts, and 2) consequently modulate the processing of faces presented in these contexts. Therefore, previously neutral odors were used as contextual stimuli in a context conditioning paradigm, resulting in an olfactory anxiety and a safety context. Then, faces showing angry, neutral, or fearful expressions were presented within both contexts during a test phase to investigate the effects of threat versus safety contexts on face perception. The late positive potential (LPP) from the EEG, skin conductance level, and subjective ratings were recorded. Results reveal successful olfactory context conditioning as reflected in enhanced processing of the anxiety context, indicated by enhanced LPP after conditioning, increased skin conductance level, and marginally respectively increased ratings. Moreover, faces presented within the threat context were rated as more unpleasant and marginally more arousing than faces presented in the safety context. Thus, olfactory stimuli can serve as context in fear conditioning, and a threatening olfactory context seems to enhance processing of stimuli perceived within this context.

Heart Rate Variability and Skin Conductance During Repetitive TMS Course in Children with Autism.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder marked by difficulty in social interactions and communication. ASD also often present symptoms of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning abnormalities. In individuals with autism the sympathetic branch of the ANS presents an over-activation on a background of the parasympathetic activity deficits, creating an autonomic imbalance, evidenced by a faster heart rate with little variation and increased tonic electrodermal activity. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of 12 sessions of 0.5 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on autonomic activity in children with ASD. Electrocardiogram and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded and analyzed during each session of rTMS. The measures of interest were time domain (i.e., R-R intervals, standard deviation of cardiac intervals, NN50-cardio-intervals >50 ms different from preceding interval) and frequency domain heart rate variability (HRV) indices [i.e., power of high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) components of HRV spectrum, LF/HF ratio]. Based on our prior pilot studies it was proposed that the course of 12 weekly inhibitory low-frequency rTMS bilaterally applied to the DLPFC will improve autonomic balance probably through improved frontal inhibition of the ANS activity, and will be manifested in an increased length of cardiointervals and their variability, and in higher frequency-domain HRV in a form of increased HF power, decreased LF power, resulting in decreased LF/HF ratio, and in decreased SCL. Our post-12 TMS results showed significant increases in cardiac intervals variability measures and decrease of tonic SCL indicative of increased cardiac vagal control and reduced sympathetic arousal. Behavioral evaluations showed decreased irritability, hyperactivity, stereotype behavior and compulsive behavior ratings that correlated with several autonomic variables.

Linking bioregulatory systems: reciprocal autonomic activation predicts sleep over 1 year in middle childhood.

This study examined reactivity to social-evaluative stress in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as prospective predictors of sleep in middle childhood. Participants included 339 children (M age = 9 years and 5 months at T1; 54% female; 64% European American, 36% African American). Sleep efficiency, sleep minutes, and variability in sleep onset time were assessed with actigraphy for seven consecutive nights at T1 and 1 year later at T2. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity (RSAR) and skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) were assessed in response to a developmentally salient social-evaluative stress task at T1. Controlling for demographic variables and the respective sleep parameter at T1, the interaction between RSAR and SCLR predicted T2 sleep efficiency and sleep minutes. Consistent with the hypothesized role of reciprocal sympathetic activation (higher SCLR) and parasympathetic withdrawal (higher RSAR), higher RSAR predicted higher sleep efficiency and sleep minutes among children with higher SCLR but not lower SCLR.

Sweating under pressure: skin conductance level reactivity moderates the association between peer victimization and externalizing behavior.

BACKGROUND: This study examined whether the association between peer victimization and externalizing behavior may be illuminated by individual differences in skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) in the context of peer stress. METHODS: Participants included 123 fifth and sixth graders (Mean age = 12.03 years, 50% females; 42% ethnic minorities). SCLR was assessed in the context of an ecologically relevant, lab-based peer-evaluative stress experience in preadolescence. RESULTS: As hypothesized, self-reported peer victimization was linked with parent- and teacher-reported externalizing behavior, and SCLR consistently moderated these associations. Peer victimization was associated with parent- and teacher-reported externalizing behavior among preadolescents who exhibited lower SCLR, but not among preadolescents who exhibited higher SCLR. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that promoting engagement with peer stress experiences and enhancing inhibitory control are potential intervention targets that may reduce externalizing behavior in the context of peer victimization (or reduce peer victimization among preadolescents who exhibit externalizing behavior).

Autonomic reactivity during acute social stress: exploratory investigation of an interaction by threat interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties.

Objective: This preliminary study examined the interactive influences of interpretation bias and emotion dysregulation in predicting autonomic stress response.Methods: Participants (N = 72 college students; ages 18-25, 70% female, 47% Hispanic/Latinx), completed a performance-based assessment of threat interpretation bias and self-report measures of emotion regulation difficulties. Electrodermal activity (EDA; skin conductance level) was collected while participants completed a standardized psychosocial stressor task.Results: Interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties interacted to predict EDA trajectories (ß = 0.054, SE = .001, CI:.007, .002, p < .001) during acute stress: presence of either interpretation bias toward threat (ß = 6.950, SE = 2.826, CI: 1.407, 12.488, p = .013) or emotion regulation difficulties (ß = 9.387, SE = 3.685, CI: 2.141, 16.636, p = .011) was associated with greater reactivity and poorer recovery; presence of both was associated with the lowest resting state EDA and blunted reactivity (ß = 1.340, SE = 3.085, CI: -4.721, 7.407, p = .66).Conclusions: Preliminary findings support interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties, and their distinct interactive patterns, as predictors of autonomic reactivity trajectories during stress. Interpretation bias modification and emotion regulation skills may be important intervention targets for common psychological conditions that are influenced by aberrant psychophysiological processes.

Alleviation of acute stress response by black pepper aroma administration.

BACKGROUND: Black pepper is one of the most popular spices globally. As black pepper essential oil has not yet been used in the context of aromatherapy, this study examined the effect of black pepper aroma on cardiac and peripheral autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity under stressful conditions using an olfactometer to administer aroma in a precise and controlled manner to ensure reproducibility. METHODS: A within-participant design experiment was conducted with 20 male university students who performed a 30-min calculation task as a short-term stressor under three aroma conditions: black pepper, ginger, and dipropylene glycol (DPG) (scentless air as a control). Each aroma was sporadically delivered (first 20 s of each 1-min interval) with the olfactometer during the task. Electrocardiograms and skin conductance level (SCL) were measured to evaluate ANS's physiological acute stress response. Subjective evaluations for the given stressful task and impressions on the types of aromas were assessed. RESULTS: The physiological acute stress response induced by the short-term stressor, which is characterized by the enhancement of the heart rate (HR) and SCL and decreases in the heart rate variability (HRV), was suppressed with black pepper: the increase in HR and reduction in HRV from the baseline were 38.9% (p = 0.048 when compared with DPG) and 32.9% smaller (p = 0.002 for multiple comparisons) than those in DPG, respectively, and the increase of SCL was 15.5% smaller (p = 0.005 for multiple comparisons) than that in ginger. However, there was no significant difference in subjective scores among the conditions. CONCLUSION: Although black pepper is a stimulative agent, the study findings showed that black pepper aroma alleviated the physiological acute stress response, which can be beneficial in aromatherapy under stressful conditions.

Psychophysiological strategies for enhancing performance through imagery-skin conductance level analysis in guided vs. self-produced imagery.

Athletes need to achieve their optimal level of arousal for peak performance. Visualization or mental rehearsal (i.e., Imagery) often helps to obtain an appropriate level of activation, which can be detected by monitoring Skin Conductance Level (SCL). However, different types of imagery could elicit different amount of physiological arousal. Therefore, this study aims: (1) to investigate differences in SCL associated with two instructional modalities of imagery (guided vs. self-produced) and six different scripts; (2) to check if SCL could differentiate respondents according to their sport expertise. Thirty participants, aged between 14 and 42 years (M = 22.93; SD = 5.24), with different sport levels took part in the study. Participants listened to each previously recorded script and then were asked to imagine the scene for a minute. During the task, SCL was monitored. We analysed the mean value, variance, slope and number of fluctuations per minute of the electrodermal signal. Unsupervised machine learning models were used for measuring the resemblance of the signal. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for distinguishing guided and self-produced imagery, and The Mann-Whitney U test was used for distinguishing results of different level athletes. We discovered that among others, self-produced imagery generates lower SCL, higher variance, and a higher number of fluctuations compared to guided imagery. Moreover, we found similarities of the SCL signal among the groups of athletes (i.e. expertise level). From a practical point of view, our findings suggest that different imagery instructional modalities can be implemented for specific purposes of mental preparation.

Electrodermal and central measures of the tonic orienting reflex (OR).

Sokolov described both phasic and tonic aspects of the Orienting Reflex (OR), but subsequent research and theory development has focussed primarily on the phasic OR at the expense of the tonic OR. The present study used prestimulus skin conductance level (SCL) during a dishabituation paradigm to model the tonic OR, examining its amplitude patterning over repeated standard stimulus presentations and a change stimulus. We expected sensitisation (increased amplitude) following the initial and change trials, and habituation (decrement) over the intervening trials. Prestimulus EEG alpha level was explored as a potential central measure of the tonic OR (as an inverse correlate), examining its pattern over stimulus repetition and change in relation to the SCL model. We presented a habituation series of innocuous auditory stimuli to two groups (each N = 20) at different ISIs (Long 13-15 s and Short 5-7 s) and recorded electrodermal and EEG data during two counterbalanced conditions; Indifferent: no task requirements; Significant: silent counting. Across groups and conditions, prestimulus SCLs and alpha amplitudes generally showed the expected trials patterns, confirming our main hypotheses. Findings have important implications for including the assessment of Sokolov's tonic OR in modelling central and autonomic nervous system interactions of fundamental attention and learning processes.

Child emotion lability is associated with within-task changes of autonomic activity during a mirror-tracing task.

Adaptive biological and emotional stress responding are both critical for healthy human development. However, the complex associations between the two are not fully understood. The current study addresses this gap in research by studying associations of child emotion regulation and lability with within-task changes in the biological stress response during a mirror-tracing task. Participants were 59 families including two parents and a child between 5 and 12 years old (52.2% female). Parents reported on family demographics and completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Child skin conductance level (SCL) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded during a baseline task and during a 3-minute mirror-tracing task. Within-task patterns of SCL and RSA during the task were estimated with multilevel modeling (measures within persons). The emotion regulation subscale was unrelated to any facet of SCL/RSA time courses. However, lower emotion lability was related to SCL patterns that changed less during the task and were overall lower. For RSA, lower emotion lability was related to higher initial RSA that significantly decreased during the task. These findings suggest that higher child emotion lability may promote increased physiological arousal of target organs during challenging activities.

Interactive Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization and Child Physiological Reactivity in Predicting Adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder Features.

Theories suggest that a transaction between child biological vulnerability and parent emotion socialization underlies the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. Yet, few studies have examined the interaction between these factors prospectively in at-risk samples. Consequently, this study tested whether parental reactions to children's negative emotions moderated the effect of the child's physiological reactivity to stress in predicting adolescent BPD features in a sample of youth with and without clinical elevations in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 61 children (52% female) and parents (90% mothers). When children were 9-13 years old, their physiological reactivity to a social stressor was assessed based on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance level (SCL) reactivity; parents also reported on their supportive and non-supportive reactions to their child's negative emotions. Children were followed-up four to five years later at ages 14-18 years old and their BPD features were assessed based on parent and adolescent report. Significant interactions between children's SCL reactivity and parental reactions to children's negative emotions were found in predicting adolescent BPD features. Children with low SCL reactivity to social stress and parents high in supportive/low in non-supportive reactions were lowest in adolescent BPD features. However, greater SCL reactivity predicted greater adolescent BPD features specifically when the parent was high in support or low in non-support. Childhood ADHD symptoms also significantly predicted greater adolescent BPD features. Findings suggest that children with different patterns of SCL reactivity may respond differently to parental reactions to their emotions.

Differences in the Course of Physiological Functions and in Subjective Evaluations in Connection With Listening to the Sound of a Chainsaw and to the Sounds of a Forest.

We explored differences in the course of physiological functions and in the subjective evaluations in response to listening to a 7-min recording of the sound of a chainsaw and to the sounds of a forest. A Biofeedback 2000x-pert apparatus was used for continual recording of the following physiological functions in 50 examined persons: abdominal and thoracic respiration and their amplitude and frequency, electrodermal activity (skin conductance level), finger skin temperature, heart rate (pulse, blood volume pulse and blood volume pulse amplitude) and heart rate variability (HRV). The group of 25 subjects listening to the sound of a chainsaw exhibited significantly lower values of blood volume pulse amplitude, lower values in peak alpha frequency HRV and higher values in peak high-frequency HRV. In the time interval from 80 s to 209 s, in which the two groups showed the greatest differences, lower values of blood volume pulse were also recorded while listening to the sound of a chainsaw. Listening to the sound of a chainsaw is associated with a greater feeling of fatigue and higher tension, while listening to the sounds of a forest is even considered to elicit feelings of improved learning abilities. The assumption that listening to the sound of a chainsaw results in higher defense arousal was confirmed. The greater variability which is exhibited by a majority of physiological functions while listening to the forest sounds may also be an innovative finding. It seems that there are two types of arousal (sympathetic and parasympathetic) following from correlations between physiological functions and subjective assessment. Low values of blood volume pulse amplitude are especially important from the health perspective. They correspond to the amount of vasoconstriction which occurs in the endothelial dysfunction related to increased mortality, incidence of myocardial infarction, leg atherosclerosis and topically to COVID-19.

Alleviating Surgeons' Stress through Listening to Natural Sounds in a Half-Encapsulated Rest Space after an Operation: A Pilot, Longitudinal Field Study.

BACKGROUND: Natural sounds are reportedly restorative, but most research has used one-off experiments conducted in artificial conditions. Research based on field experiments is still in its infancy. This study aimed to generate hypotheses on the restorative effects of listening to natural sounds on surgeons, representing professionals working in stressful conditions. METHODS: Each of four surgeons (two experts and two residents) participated six times in an experiment where they took a 10-min break listening to natural sounds (four times) or without natural sounds (twice) after a surgical operation. We measured their skin conductance level, an indicator of sympathetic arousal, continuously during the break (measurement occasions N = 2520) and assessed their mood using two questionnaires before and after the break (N = 69 and N = 42). We also interviewed them after the break. RESULTS: Based on statistical Linear Mixed-Effects modeling, we developed two hypotheses for further, more detailed studies: (H1) Listening to natural sounds after an operation improves surgeons' mood. (H2) Inexperienced surgeons' tension persists so long that the effect of natural sounds on their sympathetic arousal is negligible. CONCLUSIONS: This risk-free, easy-to-use means of stress alleviation through natural sounds could benefit highly-stressed people working indoors.

Gratitude Affects Inter-Subjective Synchronicity for Cognitive Performance and Autonomic Responsiveness.

Recently, social neurosciences have been interested in the investigation of neurophysiological responses related to the experience of positive emotions, such as gratitude, during social interactions. Specifically, the aim of the present research was to investigate whether gratitude related to gift exchange could favor cooperative behavior and bond construction, by improving behavioral and autonomic responsivity. At this regard, the autonomic synchronization and behavioral performance of 16 friends coupled in dyads were recorded during a joint attentional task. Gift exchange could be occurred either at the beginning or in the middle of the task. For the recording of simultaneous autonomic activity [heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL)], a hyperscanning biofeedback paradigm was used. Intra-subjective analysis showed an increase in behavioral [accuracy (ACC)] and autonomic responses (HR and SCL) when the gift exchange took place at the beginning of the task rather than in the middle. Moreover, inter-subjective analysis revealed an increase in behavioral performance and greater autonomic synchronization of HR index. The present research, therefore, shows how gratitude and trust experienced following gift exchange can modify participants' reactions by creating a shared cognition and the adoption of joint strategies.

Validity of electrodermal activity-based measures of sympathetic nervous system activity from a wrist-worn device.

Measuring electrodermal activity (EDA) on the wrist with the use of dry electrodes is a promising method to help identify person-specific stressors during prolonged recordings in daily life. While the feasibility of this method has been demonstrated, detailed testing of validity of such ambulatory EDA is scarce. In a controlled laboratory study, we examine SCL and ns.SCR derived from wrist-based dry electrodes (Philips DTI) and palm-based wet electrodes (VU-AMS) in 112 healthy adults (57% females, mean age = 22.3, SD = 3.4) across 26 different conditions involving mental stressors or physical activities. Changes in these EDA measures were compared to changes in the Pre-ejection period (PEP) and stressor-induced changes in affect. Absolute SCL and ns.SCR frequency were lower at the wrist compared to the palm. Wrist-based ns.SCR and palm-based ns.SCR and SCL responded directionally consistent with our experimental manipulation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. Average within-subject correlations between palm-based and wrist-based EDA were significant but modest (r SCL = 0.31; r ns.SCR = 0.42). Changes in ns.SCR frequency at the palm (r = -0.44) and the wrist (r = -0.36) were correlated with changes in PEP. Both palm-based and wrist based EDA predicted changes in affect (6.5%-14.5%). Our data suggest that wrist-based ns.SCR frequency is a useful addition to the psychophysiologist's toolkit, at least for epidemiology-sized ambulatory studies of changes in sympathetic activity during daily life.