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The cutoff frequency is generally defined as the frequency where the signal
is down by -3 dB (relative to the passband).  So at the cutoff frequency
some of the signal is removed (half power) but signal is still present.

If you are not using a brickwall filter (very high order), then you will
see the amount of signal removed gradually increasing as frequency
decreases.

On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 9:04 AM Wiktor Olszowy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear SPM community,
>
> Recently I have analysed the code of the high-pass filter in SPM
> (spm_filter.m). The order of the filter is determined via:
>
>         n       = fix(2*(k*K(s).RT)/K(s).HParam + 1);
>
> where fix is the matlab's function that rounds towards zero, k is the
> number of time points/volumes, whereas K(s).RT is the repetition time. My
> understanding is that if e.g. number_of_volumes*TR=256 seconds and the
> cutoff has not been changed (from 128s), then the signal at 1/128 Hz will
> be removed (and at lower frequencies), as 256 is a multiple of 128 and
> there is no rounding in the above formula. However, the SPM manual says:
> "The default high-pass filter cutoff is 128 seconds. Slow signal drifts
> with a period longer than this will be removed.". Do I misunderstand sth or
> is there a small inaccuracy in the manual? For the default of 128 it does
> not make a large difference, but when one is interested in making the
> cutoff paradigm-dependent, it makes a huge difference if the cutoff
> frequency is filtered out or not.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Wiktor Olszowy
>