Respiration and GSR as functions of white sound in schizophrenia.

Abstract
The hypothesis was that white sound would reduce stress reaction. The 4 groups were 20 normals-white sound (N-WS), 20 normals-no white sound (N-NoWS), 20 schizophrenics-white sound (S-WS) and 20 schizophrenics-no white sound (S-NoWS). GSR conditioning and respiration rates were measured for 20 trials, with a light as a CS and an electric shock as a UCS. The significant findings were (a) S-WS had highest respiration, (b) changes in GSR conductance were greatest in N-WS, (c) basal GSR increased only in N-WS, (d) schizophrenics groups failed to condition. The conclusions were: (a) WS is a noxious stimulus (70 db.); (b) 2 groups responded with distinguishable physiological patterns; (c) fear and anger constructs were inferred for schizophrenics and normal groups, respectively; (d) lower oxygensaturation in schizophrenics was inferred in explanation of findings. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)