Information Processing in the Time Domain 349 



DISCUSSION OF CHAPTER XIV 



H. W. Shipton (Iowa City, Iowa): May I ask two questions 

 please. First, have you used the advantages of your period analysis 

 system to study the so-called "squeak" effects that were reported 

 by Storm van Leeuwuen about two years ago? Second, what is 

 your approach to the inherent difficulty with all these systems of 

 analysis of presenting multichannel displays? Have you, for 

 example, written out the records for two channels recorded 

 simultaneously? 



Neil R. Burch (Houston, Texas): The answer to your first 

 cjuestion is no. We have not investigated the '"'squeak" effect 

 reported by W. S. van Leeuwuen. The answer to your second 

 question is that the single-channel processing" we have been doing 

 for a number of years has been directed toward trying to quantify 

 changes in the state of consciousness. We are particularly interested 

 in minimal shifts in the state of consciousness rather than in con- 

 ditions when a man is in coma or in a state of panic. The work 

 we have done in the last year and a half has been directed toward 

 the problem you ask about. For the display of multiple channel 

 information and for better display of the single channel, we are 

 using a type of analysis that is the inverse to the overlap analysis 

 of the group GSR. We generate a train of square waves with 

 signal A. These square waves are minor period square waves 

 gaited by the major period. This yields a burst of minor period 

 square waves, a blank space, a burst of minor period square waves, 

 a blank space, etc. The duration and positioning of these waves 

 are characteristic of the wave shape in this signal. We then take 

 signal B and do exactly the same thing. Now we have two trains 

 of square waves. We put them into norlogic circuits and ask the 

 question: "How much anticoincidence is present?" If these are 

 identical waves, we get no readout at all. If there is dissimilarity 

 between signal A and Signal B, even in very minor phase shifts, 

 then this system reads out either the exact amount of instantaneous 

 anticoincidence or the sum over one second or more. We also 

 plan to display this information toposcopically, and hope to be 

 able to handle up to 10 channels in this way. 



