Eprime fMRI synchronisation -Please help
 
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Eprime fMRI synchronisation -Please help Expand / Collapse
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Posted 11/17/2008 1:28:53 PM
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Hello,

I am about to start my first imaging study. However I am not quite sure what is the best method for synchronising the timing of Eprime with the scanner pulses. There appear to be a number of methods, i.e., logging a number of scanner pulses using 'a wait for pulse' screen, adjusting the Eprime clock for the discrepany between eprime and scanner clock or using IFSI. I cite where I will be conducting the fMRI studies is relatievly new and has little experience with Eprime and doesn't as yet have a method of synchronising Eprime presentation with the scanner. Can anyone please suggest a relatively simple but effective method for using Eprime with fMRI? 

Any advice suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks very much,  

Jessica

Post #2419
Posted 11/17/2008 3:01:43 PM
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Jessica,

Welcome to the challenging world of fMRI research!

We use a PST BrainLogics Button Response System that gets a trigger input from the scanner and sends the trigger as a Serial Response Box (SRBox) output to the E-Prime computer (which in turn we have EP emulate as a keyboard, but that is just a detail). Then in EP we just put a text object before the scanner task, and have that object wait for the appropriate response from the SRBox (or keyboard), in this case a {^} character. After that we just trust that the E-Prime clock stays synchronized with the scanner clock. If the EP clock were off, we could always use Clock.Scale in our script to adjust the EP clock rate (see the online E-Basic Help).


In an earlier era we used IFIS, which did essentially the same thing under the covers. As you can tell we do pretty much just what you have already learned and posted. I just mean to confirm that what you have learned is pretty common operating procedure.

-- David McFarlane, Systems Designer
Michigan State University
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