fastMEP.zip
This archive contains two online scripts to control a TMS machine in order to generate the stimuli required to build up a plot of MEP amplitude vs. stimulus intensity.
Stimulus intensities are randomised to minimise habituation and can be applied singly, under manual control, or automatically at fixed intervals. MEP amplitudes are measured automatically within a user-defined time range. A best fit Bolzmann sigmoid curve fit of MEP amplitude vs Intensity updates after each stimulus. There are options to edit the Intensity-Response plot to exclude data points where the background noise level was too high. In addition, the plot can be normalised relative to user-defined upper and lower limits.
MEP recordings, I-R plot and a spreadsheet of results, including the sigmoid fit statistics are saved to disk. The degree of automation means that it should be possible to obtain high quality intensity –response plots in only a few minutes.
There are two variants of the FastMEPsr script. with the suffixes V1 and V2.
V1 presents stimuli at random intensities within a user-defined range until stopped by the user or all intensities in the range have been applied.
In V2.the user selects an intensity range and step size and the number of repeats at each intensity. The script then presents these pre-defined intensities in random order.
Each script has a quick-reference user guide that displays while the script is running at the click on a toolbar button. There is also a .pdf user guide for V1.
Requirements
- Signal v7.07 or higher and a Micro- or Power-1401 interface.
- ghutils.sgs, ghgridutils.sgs.and ug.s2s. Store these libraries of script functions in your SignalN folder (where N is the version number) in the folder named include. Alternatively, keep these files in the same folder as the main scripts. Alternatively, keep these files in the same folder as the main scripts.
- A TMS machine and appropriate remote control cables. Supported TMS devices include: MagStim, MagPro, PowerMag, DuoMag, DS8R and Neurosoft models.