An extended difference of coherence test for comparing and combining several independent coherence estimates: theory and application to the study of motor units and physiological tremor

Recently there has been an increase in the use of spectral methods for the analysis of experimental data. These analytical methods allow the study of interactions between simultaneously recorded signals and are particularly suited to the study of systems displaying rhythmic behaviour. A useful param...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neuroscience methods 1997-04, Vol.73 (1), p.69-79
Main Authors: Amjad, A.M., Halliday, D.M., Rosenberg, J.R., Conway, B.A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Coherence
Difference of coherence
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Models. Methods
Humans
Models, Theoretical
Motor Neurons - physiology
Motor unit
Motor unit synchronization
Spectral analysis
Statistics as Topic - methods
Tremor
Tremor - physiopathology
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Recently there has been an increase in the use of spectral methods for the analysis of experimental data. These analytical methods allow the study of interactions between simultaneously recorded signals and are particularly suited to the study of systems displaying rhythmic behaviour. A useful parameter in this context is the coherence function which provides a bounded measure of linear association between two signals. In this report we introduce two new techniques for dealing with an arbitrary number of independent coherence estimates. The first technique provides a test to compare the coherence estimates for statistically significant differences. The second allows the original coherence estimates to be combined, or `pooled' into a single representative estimate. These two measures, taken together, provide a powerful tool for characterising and summarising the correlations within data sets. Applications of the techniques are illustrated by analysing the interactions between single motor unit discharges and finger tremor, and between pairs of motor unit discharges in human subjects.
ISSN:0165-0270
1872-678X
DOI:10.1016/S0165-0270(96)02214-5