Effects of obesity on time-frequency components of electroretinogram signal using continuous wavelet transform

We investigate impacts of the obesity on three different responses (cone, rod and maximal combined) of electroretinogram signals. To analyze and extract features of the responses, two major components of electroretinogram signal (namely a and b waves) have been used. The amplitudes and respective peak times of the waves have been firstly calculated by using statistical methods in time domain. These time domain analysis could be integrated by time-frequency domain analysis to reflect electroretinogram components considerably. To achieve this aim, we have analyzed the a and b waves by applying short time Fourier transform, continuous wavelet transform and discrete wavelet transform methods on electroretinogram signals. Our findings prove that the continuous wavelet transform gives better results than other methods with respect to time-frequency results extracted from scalogram analyses. In this context, it is also showed that the usage of Mexican hat is the most proper wavelet to analyze obesity effect on electroretinogram. Moreover, we show that the a wave does not change considerably by obesity for electroretinogram responses. On the contrary, the b wave is significantly affected from obesity for maximal combined response as compared with other responses. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that the present paper is the first attempt to address the effects of obesity on electroretinogram signals. Furthermore, it is clearly denoted that the electroretinogram signals are affected adversely with levels of the obesity.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of obesity on electroretinogram signals, utilizing analysis of a and b waves to examine different responses and finding that continuous wavelet transform provides better results for time-frequency analysis. Mexican hat wavelet is identified as the most suitable for analyzing obesity effects, and it is shown that the b wave is significantly affected by obesity for the maximal combined response.