An Automatic System for Processing Microelectrode Data

A data processing system has been designed and built which converts single unit microelectrode recordings obtained on analog magnetic tape into a punched paper tape record. The conversion process preserves the exact time sequence in which the neurological events occur. The punched paper tape record can be used to obtain hard copy via a "Flexowriter" and to punch IBM cards for computation on any one of a number of digital computing machines. It thereby permits detailed study by digital computers of such phenomena as spontaneous activity and adaptive cell processes during and after periods of stimulation. The basic method for obtaining the paper tape record is to slow down the playback of the original tape record by a factor of 50 or l00. This permits continuous analog to digital conversion of the intervals by a compact digital subsystem designed for this purpose. The measurements are encoded and presented to a tape perforator operating at 110 characters per second. A code character is inserted at the end of each interval measurement to identify the intervals as: stimulus-response, response-response, response-stimulus, stimulus-stimulus. Other uses of this coding symbol are possible.