Subject: Re: Fitz and Kramer's audiomonitor From: "John F. Olsen" <jfolsen(at)HELIX.NIH.GOV> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 10:13:49 -0400Fitch and Kramer's multichannel auditory monitor is an intriguing device which takes advantage of auditory capablility that is familiar to many neurophysiologists. In my experiments, I find auditory monitoring of EKG to be invaluable. Auditory monitoring conveys instantly changes in heart rate, rhythm, and beat amplitude without the constant attention that a chart recorder or an oscilloscope requires. I also find it easy to correlate stimulus and response through auditory monitoring of the stimulus and action potentials. Best of all, both tasks can be done apparently simultaneously and in conjuction with visually based tasks, such as typing instructions on a keyboard. The auditory mode seems to be capable of dividing and prioritizing attention to a greater extent than the visual mode. In addition, I have found that spatially separating the audiomonitor that broadcasts the neural response from the one for the EKG makes both signals easier to follow. Perhaps Fitch and Kramer could incorporate the auditory spatial dimension in a stereo physiological monitor and thereby add another channel of information, eg., CO2 level coded by elevation, 02 by azimuth. John Olsen Lab. Neurophysiology NIMH