Patent ID: 8145297

Claim:
An apparatus for assessing physiological signal reactivity of a subject, the apparatus comprising: a control unit for receiving physiological signal data obtained from a subject; a stimulating system in communication with the control unit, wherein the stimulating system supplies a time reference corresponding to a stimulus generated by the stimulating system; wherein the control unit is programmed to carry out the steps of: temporally aligning the physiological signal data with the time reference; deriving a first set of values for a first measure indicative of irregularity in the physiological signal data occurring before the time reference in the time domain, the first set including at least one value of the first measure; producing a second set of values for the first measure, the second set being subsequent to the first set and after the time reference in the time domain and including at least one value of the first measure; and determining, based on a comparison between the first set and the second set, whether reactivity is present in the physiological signal data.