PsPM-FER01: Physiological Measurements from a Fear Conditioning Task

University of Zurich researcher Joshua Zimmermann collected pupil size, skin conductance, ECG, and respiration data from 30 healthy participants. The data originates from a discriminant delay fear conditioning experiment with visual stimuli and electrical shocks. The experiment included 10 CS- and 32 CS+ trials, with a stimulus onset asynchrony of 3.5 seconds and an inter-trial interval averaging 9 seconds.

Use Cases

• Modeling conditioned fear responses based on physiological time-series data like pupil size and skin conductance.
• Analyzing trial-by-trial physiological reactivity based on CS type and shock pairing information.
• Investigating individual differences in fear acquisition using demographic and shock expectancy rating data.

Strengths

• Includes data from 30 participants with specific demographics (12 males, 18 females, mean age 23.9 years).
• Captures multiple synchronized physiological modalities (PSR, SCR, ECG, respiration) during a controlled experimental paradigm.
• Provides detailed trial structure information, including 42 total trials with specific CS+/CS- counts and shock contingencies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific modeling tasks.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Zurich

Collection Method

Collected from a controlled laboratory experiment involving a discriminant delay fear conditioning task.