Nerve Signals Traced By Electronics

'The method, perfected by Mr P. Styles and Dr A Buller, enables doctors to trace sensory nerve tracts from the surface of the body, through each nerve centre, to the brain', continues the story, 'this is achieved by a cross correlation technique.'

'Electrical signals produced by physical stimuli such as heat, pressure, etc are about 0.5 microvolts. With conventional electro-physiological measuring instruments, such a small signal is swamped by background noise', continues the report.

'The combined sensory and noise voltages are eventually held on an EMI Barrier Grid Storage Tube. This has a single gun and uses electrostatic focussing and deflection. It accepts electrical signals as either unidirectional or bi-directional  input, and will release them either unchanged or in modified form', adds the story.

'In the St Thomas' technique, the tube is used for integration of the combined noise and sensory signals. As a result of this process the noise is cancelled out. But since the sensory pulse occurs at regular periods, there is a signal build-up at this point which is read-out and recorded,' concludes the story.