Study the Effect of Body Postures on Skin Conductance Response and Heart Rate

Skin Conductance (SC) and Heart Rate (HR) are the two basic tools to evaluate any small physical change that occurred in the human body. Skin conductance demonstrates the electrical conductivity response of the skin. Skin conductance response is the evaluating tool of sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When external or internal sensations arise that are physiologically stimulating, the skin temporarily becomes a stronger conductor of electricity. Heart rate shows the beat to beat interval of our heart. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of various physical activities on skin conductance and heart rate. To this end, on the self-recorded data set of twenty subjects, the sample entropy is evaluated for the SC, and HR is evaluated. The mean value of skin conductance and heart rate was also examined along with the p-value to evaluate the impact of body positions on the skin conductance response and heart rate. For this purpose, the skin conductance response and HR is recorded for 10 minutes in the position of supine and standing simultaneously. By evaluating the results, it is observed that the value of skin conductance (SC) response and heart rate are increased as the activity is shifted from supine to standing. From the results, it is inferred that there is a substantial decrease in the sample entropy of SC and HR in the standing posture, which indicates an increase in the sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the standing position. A positive correlation is found between the response of skin conductance and heart rate when the position of the body is changed from supine (rest) to standing posture.