Oscilloscope and Spectrum Analyzer

The oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer are just displays.  They have nothing to do with the training, just how the overall signal is portrayed on the screen.

Tone Generators

There have always been Tone generators free standing (the binaural beat always playing e.g. alpha theta), others linked in a conditional way to thresholds or AND objects (beats sounding only when the brain is out of the target range) and others linked to frequency activity so they track the peak frequency and change beat rates to “herd” the brain’s activity in a specific direction.  For example the beta percent up takes peak frequency and compares it to 14 Hz.  If above, it subtracts 2 Hz from the peak and sets the beat rate there (19 Hz peak would result in a 17 Hz beat).  If below, it adds 1 or 2 Hz from the peak and sets the beat rate there (e.g. 4Hz peak would result in a 6 Hz beat.)

Thresholds

All the 2 and 4-channel multiband coherence designs have both auto (on Instruments 1–the client screen) and manual (on Instruments 2 –trainer screen) thresholds. If either is in scoring range, there is feedback.  The trainer shouldn’t need to do anything but watch. Each band will be passing at least 80% of the time–more if they are below the fixed/manual target.  With 4 bands, at least 40% of the time all will be in pass range at the same time, and the client will hear the deep tone as the video begins to move.  The more the client stays in the target range, the more this happens (up to 100%).

There is always feedback activity in the chord, some notes sounding.  It’s easy enough to increase the feedback rates.  In each of the auto thresholds, click in the button area beneath the bar graph. The button shows the percent of time the thresholds will be met. Each click will raise the automatic target by 1%. 90% reward pretty much assures that the minimum time with video and the deep tone will be around 65%.

BPS

The bps reading is bits per second, a measure of the rate at which the software transforms the analog (waveform) to a digital (numeric) reading. Higher bps rates relate to greater resolution and finer detail, always at a trade-off though. 12 or 16 bits are generally considered to be quite acceptable by the engineers with whom I’ve spoken. 8 is an acceptable lower end.

MIDI Sounds

MIDI sounds have 12 tones (8 white notes and 4 black notes on a piano) per octave. 60 is middle C on the piano, so 48 would be the C below that, 72 would be the C above it, etc. You can choose any key and find the root notes in that key (like the C in the key of C). If C is 60, C-sharp is 61, D is 62, E-flat is 63, E is 64 (the third in the key of C), F is 64, F-sharp is 65, G is 66 (the 5th in the key of C), etc.  To make a major chord in C, you would set one threshold to play 60, another to play 64 and the third to play 66.

If you want to create a chord in another key, then you need to know the 3 or 4 notes that make up that chord and find them on the MIDI scale.  For example, in the key of F, your root would be 64, your third would be 68 and your fifth would be 70.

Obviously major and minor seventh chords would add a fourth note, harmonic and melodic minor chords would usually drop the value of one of the notes by one step on the MIDI scale.  If you want to use a Blues scale or Pentatonic or any of the other options, you’ll need to know enough music theory to identify the appropriate notes in those.

Another very nice option is to play a melody line with the pitch of the note being played dependent on where in the range of training values the current reading is.  For example, if theta is varying in a range between 10 and 22 microvolts (a range of 12), and you set your note range to 60 to 72 (also a range of 12), you can set the software to raise the note one step for each microvolt the signal increases–or to decrease the pitch one note for each microvolt.  The melody literally becomes the feedback.

DVD Feedback

You can use brightness and volume controls on the DVD to avoid the choppiness of starting and stopping all the time instead of the Play/Pause when you connect to Enable on the DVD player. Using a Yes/No output to inform the Brightness or Volume (or both) controls.  Then you set the input values (on the DVD Brightness properties, for example, to 0 and 1 and the brightness levels to something like 400m and 1.  You can set a smoothing/averaging for this to something like 125m.

The other option is to set your thresholds higher, so the client is scoring 80-85% in the beginning.  As he improves, his scoring should go up to 90 or higher and the brain will be rewarded” with very smooth playback of the DVD.  Neurofeedback is brain shaping, not brain disciplining.

How to change window size for DVD player

From the instruments menu choose edit layout.

Resize the windows as you would in any other Windows file.  Be careful not to click the X and close the window, which removes it from the design.

Changing DVD Reward Types

Setting up the volume control instead of start-stop control for CD or DVD play will require you to change the Signal Diagram. You might want to hold off on that until you get a little more comfortable with the basics of the program.

Copying and Pasting Among Designs

There is no way to copy and paste among signal diagrams.