This code can be used with PsychoPy.
The design of these experiments was heavily based on two papers by Langers and colleagues (2014, 1; 2)
This code was created by Camille Pluchot & Scott Love as part of the SheepVoicefMRI project funded by the ANR (ANR-20-CE20-0001).
All experiments presented were designed to be triggered by the MRI scanner. In our context, this requires waiting for a keyboard “s” before starting. This “s” is triggered by the onset of the first fMRI volume acquisition.
The file Broadband_tonotopy.psyexp presents pure tone beeps of different frequencies in either “low” or “high” frequency blocks. A single beep has a duration of 75 ms and it is preceded by 25 ms of silence, so 100 ms total. Within a block, 88 of these 100 ms events (beep + silence) are presented for a total block duration of 8.8 seconds. After each block of beeps there is a 8.8 second block of silence. The order of low and high blocks is randomised for each presentation - The order of 1 repetition of a low and a high block is chosen randomly (e.g., low, silence, high silence) then the order of the second repetition is randomised (e.g., high, silence, low silence) and so on for the total number of repetitions (8). The definition of “low” and “high” frequencies follows that of Langers and colleagues (2014)
The file broadband_tonotopy_abs.psyexp is the same as Broadband_tonotopy.psyexp except that there is only a silence block after each pair of low and high blocks : low, high silence, low, high, silence. Again the order of low and high blocks is randomised.
The file broadband_tonotopy_sparse.psyexp presents the low and high blocks of pure tones in a sparse sampling fMRI acquisition paradigm. That is, sounds are played during a time when there is no fMRI volume acquisition. A single whole-head volume is acquired after each sound block. In practice, due to how the acquisition is setup on the MRI scanner, there is a volume acquired followed by a delay.