Abstract: The present study, utilizing electrodermal activity as an index of arousallevel, has the purpose to examine the inconsistency of many previous works onthe psychophysiological deficit of schizophrenia. 20 schizophrenics and 10 normal adults were used as subjects. After a 10minutes "rest" period, 2 series of tones were presented successively as stimulationfor habituation test. The results showed that schizophrenics as a group were overaroused incomparing with normal adults. There were also some difference between thetwo clinical types of schizophrenia: nonparanoid schizophrenics gave the tendencyto show higher basal level, greater frequencies of spontaneous electrodermalfluctuations, and slower habituation of response amplitude during repeatedstimulations. The concept of arousal continuum was discussed, and furtherresearch suggested.

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