Filter Controls
The Filter controls vary slightly between the Clinician Screens. For instance, only the Basic Training clinician screen actually displays the “Raw” amplitude signal. The others only display the Corrected signal which is used for reward feedback. On some Clinician Screens, you cannot change the frequency directly but rather must enter a Control Box menu to do so, because of space constraints on the screen. Otherwise, the controls are pretty much the same for all screens. The example below is from the Basic Training Screen.
Filter # Button
Allows the user to disable the filter completely. If this box is disabled (unchecked), then no data will be recorded for this filter and the Filter will not factor into the assessment of goal criteria. Disabling a filter completely may be useful if the Clinician screen has more Filters available than are necessary for your training protocol. For example, the Four Filter Training clinician screen allows for up to 4 filters to be configured. But, if your Training Protocol only requires the reward/inhibition of 3 filter frequencies, then you could disable Filter 4 to accomplish that configuration.
Feedback checkbox
When checked, the filter data will factor into the assessment of goal criteria and filter statistics will save with the patient data. When Feedback is disabled (unchecked), data from the set frequency range is still saved but the data will not factor into the assessment of the goal criteria. You may wish to operate with Feedback disabled for a filter if you just wish to monitor a particular frequency bandwidth.
You can elect to uncheck the “Feedback” box which will still record the data from that Filter for Monitoring of a particular frequency during training, BUT that filter will not actually factor into the reward feedback that the client/trainee sees during training.
You’ll notice that the amplitude bar/meter is grayed out in this scenario, but statistics still are calculated and displayed onscreen.
You can also disable a Filter entirely by unchecking the box next to the Filter # display. In this case, no data is saved from that filter and new feedback for that filter is provided. This may be useful in a scenarios wherein your chosen Clinician screen has more available filters than you actually require for your protocol. So, rather than record a filter unnecessarily, you can turn it off entirely.
Channel x dropdown
Chooses which channel (x) this filter uses for its input. Also displays the currently set Sensor Placement for the selected channel.
Max uV
Determines the ceiling of the vertical scale as measured in microvolts (uV) that is used to set the maximum range of the graph. You will be unable to set the Max uV to a setting that is less than the currently set threshold value.
Above/Below Chooses the player’s goal to be above or below the threshold. Also displays the percent of time the player met that goal since starting feedback.
“Above” would be the desired setting if you wished to Reward, Increase or Uptrain a particular bandwidth.
“Below” would be the desired setting to Inhibit, Decrease or downtrain a EEG filter.
Frequency
Allows you to select the EEG frequency range that will be measured. You adjust this using the mouse to change the Min and Max settings in order to set the upper and lower boundaries of the frequency range desired. Can also be changed via the “Settings-Filter Frequency” menu from the top of the screen. Any frequency of at least 2 uV can be configured between 0.5 hz and 48 hz with the SmartMind system.
Displayed Statistics
Amplitude
Displays the current amplitude (strength) of the signal. Amplitude is defined as the absolute value of the maximum displacement from a zero value during one period of an oscillation. Amplitude is a measure of the power of the EEG signal in microvolts (uV).
Mean(10s)
Displays a mean for the last 10 second interval of amplitude data.
Total Mean
Displays the total mean value of the gathered amplitude since the last reset.
Sustained
Displays the maximum amount of time that the player has sustained the set goal since the last reset.
Amplitude Bars and Reward Signal
Raw
Displays the amplitude level of the input signal for that channel. This display does not accommodate for any artifact detection and/or suppressed amplitude based on artifact detection. Only the “Basic Training” clinician screen actually displays the Raw amplitude bar. For space considerations, the “Raw” amplitude bar graph is not shown on the other Clinician screens.
Corrected x
Displays the corrected amplitude level of the input signal for that channel. This display DOES accommodate for artifact detection and suppresses amplitude variation based on artifact detection. Also displayed is a numerical value (x) of the set threshold level (to the right of label “corrected”) by which the player’s goals are measured.
Filter Oscilloscope
Displays the signal wave form for the filter.
Graphs On
Turns the graph display on/off. Turning off the graphs for some slower machines may be necessary in order to conserve CPU usage. However, most Pentium III computers that are at least 800 Mhz have been found to be an effective minimum configuration for using the SmartMind system.
