There are four options for auditory stimulus presentation and subject communication at LCNI: room intercom, the standard Siemens headphones, a set of headphones from Nordic Neurolabs (NNL), and a set of Sensimetrics earbuds. The right option for your project depends on which coils you are using and whether you are presenting auditory stimuli or simply communicating with the participant.
If you are using the 32-channel or 64-channel head coils, the options for stimulus presentation are the Sensimetrics earbuds or feeding audio into the room intercom. You may use the earbuds for stimulus presentation and the room intercom for subject communication.
If you are using prerecorded stimuli with the Sensimetrics earbuds, the sound quality will be greatly enhanced by prefiltering your sound files. Filtering software is available here: http://www.sens.com/products/model-s14/#downloads. You will also need the custom filter files for our earbuds; contact lcni@uoregon.edu for more information.
When using another head coil, or no head coil, we recommend either the Siemens or NNL headphones, as they will provide better sound insulation than the earbuds for most participants. For simple communication with the participant, the Siemens headphones will suffice. If you are presenting auditory stimuli, you should use the NNL headphones.
For participant-to-operator communications, you may use either the room intercom or the Persaio MR noise cancelling audio system.