PsPM-FSS6B: Psychophysiological Responses in a Somatosensory Fear Conditioning Task

Eighteen healthy participants underwent a Pavlovian discriminant delay fear conditioning task with tactile conditioned stimuli and electrical unconditioned stimuli. The dataset captures trial-by-trial skin conductance and pupil size responses, keypress accuracy, and precise stimulus timing. These synchronized psychophysiological measures allow for detailed analysis of associative learning and threat anticipation in a controlled laboratory setting.

Use Cases

• Modeling fear acquisition curves based on skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude across trials.
• Analyzing attentional engagement through pupil size response (PSR) dynamics during conditioned stimulus presentation.
• Investigating response inhibition and decision-making using keypress correctness and reaction time data.
• Comparing physiological responses to simple versus complex somatosensory conditioned stimuli of different temporal structures.

Strengths

• Includes data from 18 participants with detailed demographics (10 males, 8 females, aged 25.7±5.0 years).
• Contains multiple synchronized physiological measures (SCR, PSR) and behavioral responses (keypress) per trial.
• Provides precise experimental parameters, including stimulus onset asynchrony (3.5s) and randomized inter-trial intervals (7, 9, or 11s).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and specific file formats are not provided by any source.
• The dataset's scale is limited to a single study with 18 participants, which may restrict generalizability.
• The last update date is unknown, raising questions about the dataset's current maintenance status.

Provenance

Source

Matthias Staib, University of Zurich

Collection Method

Data collected from a controlled laboratory experiment using a Digitimer DS7A constant current stimulator and psychophysiological recording equipment.

Geography

Likely Zurich, Switzerland (inferred from author's affiliation).