HUSH Stories-Tones

PI Name: Scott K Holland,PhD scott.Holland@cchmc.org

Areas: Bilateral auditory areas in STG and Wernicke’s area

Program: Mac Stim

Durations: 9 min.

Special Equipment: Headphones, response buttons (if needed)

Description: Event-Related Design with two sentences presented during the first 5s quiescent, no-scan interval, followed by a 6s data acquisition during which three image volumes are acquired with 2s repetition time (TR=2s). A comprehension question based on the preceding sentences is presented during the second 5s no-scan interval. Participants made a yes/no button-press response to a visual cue during this interval which was followed by another acquisition period. The third segment of each stimulus presentation consists of 5s of random tones (again with no scanning) followed by a third 6s acquisition period (3 volumes, TR=2s). These three phases of the paradigm are presented for 15 cycles at 36 seconds/cycle for a total scan time of 9 minutes; all of the sentences, taken together, made up a coherent story. See Figure 1 for a diagram of the paradigm timing. This sparse acquisition approach (Schmithorst and Holland, 2004) allows participants to clearly hear the presented stories without interference from gradient noise. The inclusion of comprehension questions allows for on-line performance monitoring.