Uppsala universitet

Matched Filtering and Multiple Hypothesis Tracking
Applied to C-Fiber Action Potentials Recorded in Human Nerves

Björn Hansson, Clemens Forster, and Erik Torebjörk

Proc. of Signal and Data Processing of Small Targets 1998, SPIE, Vol. 3373, pp. 582-593, Orlando, FL, USA, 14-16 April 1998.


Abstract:
We describe an application of multiple target tracking (MTT) to microneurography, with the purpose of estimating conduction velocity changes and recovery constants of human nerve C-fibers.

In this paper, the focus is on the detection and the tracking of the nerve action potentials (APs). The subsequent parameter estimation is described only briefly. Results from an application of the tracking system on real data recorded in human subjects are presented.

Action potentials from C-fibers were recorded with a thin needle electrode inserted into the peroneal nerve of awake human subjects. The APs were detected by a matched filter constituting a maximum likelihood constant false alarm rate (ML-CFAR) detector.

By utilizing the multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) method, the detected APs (targets) in each trace were associated to individual nerve fibers (tracks) by their typical conduction latencies in response to electrical stimulation in the skin. The measurements were one-dimensional (range only), and the APs were spaced in time with intersecting, piecewise continuous, trajectories. The amplitude of the APs was varying slowly over time for each C-fiber and was in general different for different fibers. It was therefore incorporated into the tracking algorithm to improve its performance.

Related publications:
Paper in IEEE Trans on Biomedical Engineering, 2002.
Report version of that paper, describing the complete algorithm.
Master thesis on the implementation of the tracking problem.

Source:
Paper Poster
Paper in PDF format PDF (1271 K),   Postscript (1554 K),
compressed PS (gz) (387 K)
Poster in GIF format GIF (115 K),   PowerPoint (870 K)

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