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Signal attenuation as a function of integrator time constant and signal duration
Author(s) -
BLUMENTHAL TERRY D.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb01041.x
Subject(s) - integrator , attenuation , signal (programming language) , integrating adc , time constant , op amp integrator , constant (computer programming) , passive integrator circuit , control theory (sociology) , physics , computer science , optics , rc circuit , electrical engineering , operational amplifier , voltage , telecommunications , engineering , artificial intelligence , capacitor , amplifier , bandwidth (computing) , control (management) , quantum mechanics , ćuk converter , programming language
Abstract In some laboratories, cyeblink electromyogram is rectified and smoothed before the analog signal is digitized. The relationship among the integrator time constant, the duration of the response, and the attenuation of the data was investigated by passing a number of signals at durations of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 ms into a contour‐following integrator (Coulbourn model S76–01), which first rectifies and then smooths (integrates) the signal. Integrator time constants of 10, 42, 70, 144, and 300 ms were used. The output of the integrator was sampled (1,000 Hz) and stored on a Macintosh SE computer. The integrator attenuated the signal, and the amount of attenuation increased as the duration of the signal decreased and as the time constant of the integrator increased. For brief inputs, the integrator does not charge fully, so only the early portion of the charge limb is present, and this early portion is the steepest part of the charge limb. Therefore, the longer the time constant, the less likely that small or brief responses will be detected.