Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

5-31-1987

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor

Stanley S. Reisman

Second Advisor

Peter Engler

Third Advisor

W. H. Warren Ball

Abstract

The purpose of the project is to aid the study of the response of nucleus ambiguus neurons to changes in blood pressure. The sampling runs indicate that there is a correlation between blood pressure and neuron activity for some of the neurons monitored. Some neurons react to blood pressure increases by Increased neural firing rate while others react by decreased neural firing rate. Some neurons do not respond to blood pressure manipulation comprising the non-vagal neurons. A system was developed for the DIN PC to collect electrocardiogram, blood pressure, and neuron activity from a dog, and to perform non-real time analysis of the data. The system consists of a MetraByte DASHB plug-in board for the IEMPC to perform 12-bit AiD conversions for up to 8 channels, I/0 driver to control the A/D conversion, a window comparator circuit to identify peaks within a specified range, and compiled BASIC programs to setup initialization parameters, initiate sampling, and to run the analysis. The analysis consists of detecting R-wave peaks. Systolic and diastolic pressures, and the number and rate of spike activity in between heart beats and in specified intervals.

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