Bandpass Filters and Thresholds

The bandpass filters simply define the frequency to be passed and do not say anything about the protocol.

The threshold objects HAVE to have a definition of whether the signal is to be rewarded or inhibited.  If you go to the Objects menu and choose any of the Thresholds on the list, you’ll open the Properties window for that threshold.  On that window, in the Threshold Tab, the bottom of the three check boxes is “Increase.”  If that box is checked, then the signal is rewarded above the threshold; if it is NOT checked, the signal is inhibited to stay below the threshold.  There’s no option other than those two.  Also, if you look on the Instruments1 window, there are six Threshold Bar Graphs.  Each one has, in its second-to-bottom line below the graph, either Decrease or Increase.

You can open the Properties window for any of the Bandpass filters and/or the Threshold objects in the Objects menu, or by double-clicking it on the Signal Diagram page, or by right-clicking (the Thresholds) on the Instruments1 page.  This will allow you to change the desired training range or filter type or order for the Bandpass filters; it will allow you to change various elements on the Thresholds as well.

Ratio Output

The Ratio output from the BioExplorer threshold reports the ratio of the actual value divided by the target value.  So, for example, if the target is set for 10 microvolts and the actual reading is 12 microvolts, the ratio output would give 1.2 or 120% of the target.  Using a standard Pass/Fail output might, for example, make PacMan move or stop moving, but whether the client was barely over or WAY over the target, PacMan would move at the same speed.  Using a Ratio output, PacMan could move faster or slower, depending on how far above the target the brain was.

All this would work fine if you were training to increase something.  But often we are training to decrease a frequency’s activity.  For example, same target of 10 uV, the client is barely under it at 9 (9/10=90%) or WAY under it at 5 (5/10=50%), would result in the PacMan actually going SLOWER when the client was doing better.  In that case, you might choose to Reverse the ratio output.  By doing so, the 50% (5/10) would be changed to 200% (10/5), and the feedback would make more sense.