Request for Voltage indicator, Peak to Peak Voltage in measurements

[gagegreg]

Note from Brian (our EMG collaborator)

On the ADI system, we measured the peak to peak amplitude AND the RMS of numerous responses across a large range of amplitudes. Here, I carefully defined the time window exactly at the beginning of the response and exactly at the end of the response. Then, also using careful definitions of the onset and end of the response, I measured the RMS of those same responses on the data recorded via EMG Spikerbox on Spike Recorder.

Results: The peak to peak amplitude and the RMS values from the ADI system were very strongly correlated, suggesting that the RMS provides similar information to the peak to peak amplitude measure. And, the RMS responses from the Spike Recorder software reflected the RMS measured from the ADI system. The RMS response from BYB equipment changed as expected across the range of taps.

Conclusion: You most definitely can precisely measure the amplitude of discrete, rapid, reflex responses like this using the RMS function in Spike Recorder, as long as you blow up the response on the time scale and then very carefully delineate the beginning and the end of the response, not including any baseline before or after the response. This is important because this means you can teach more quantitatively about how reflex responses change based on the strength of the input (hammer tap force) and based on changing conditions that would change the input/output excitability of the reflex arc. Your BYB hammers measure the acceleration, so I presume that you can precisely measure the strength of the input to the reflex.

I responded:
Thanks, Brian. This is very helpful. Let me ask you.... what are the most useful measurements to have in SpikeRecorder? RMS, time of window is all we have. You mention Peak to peak voltage. Are there other measurements we should consider?

To which his response was:
Greg – the time window, RMS of the signal, and Peak to Peak amplitude captures the things I would want to be able to measure for experiments that are typically done with the spikerbox in the educational setting.

Making an issue so we capture this feature request.