Yes! Open the C Drive on the nordicComfortPlayer’s PC and there you will find two folders: ‘movies’ and ‘music’. Copy your desired video or audio files into these folders accordingly. For videos, you can choose if you want to add the new files to the ‘general’ or ‘children’ folder. After adding the files, start nordicComfortPlayer and you should be able to see and play the newly added videos or audio files in the media library.
Yes. Every paradigm has a 'Default' slide. This is used to set the general appearance. Changing the font size, colour, style, or slide background colour in the default slide and clicking on 'Save and apply' will change the appearance of other slides.
Yes, all nordicAktiva paradigms can be displayed on the VisualSystem HD goggles. The HDMI output of the nordicAktiva PC can be connected to a splitter, which then gives rise to two identical HDMI outputs, one for each of the two independent displays. More information can be found in the ‘Display Setup for VisualSystem HD’ guide on our website. If you have both the LCD monitor and the VisualSystem HD goggles and need to switch often between them, you can add an HDMI switch to smoothly transfer the display from one to the other.
Yes, the SyncBox can forward the MR-triggers to other equipment, e.g., an EEG system. There are, however, different approaches depending on your setup:
Yes, it is possible to install nordicAktiva on computers other than that provided by NordicNeuroLab. Below are the minimum requirements:
· Operating system:
o Windows 7, 8.1, or 10
· Hardware:
o Intel i3 processor or equivalent
o 4 GB RAM
o 100 MB of free space on hard disk
o DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with dual video outputs
o Audio outputs
o USB or serial port (for NNL SyncBox connection)
For further support, please contact us at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
You can no longer directly over-write paradigms from the NNL library. For the purpose of making changes, there is now a User library. First click on the three dots next to the paradigm you wish to change, and select Duplicate. You will then have your own copy (with a unique name) within your User library, which is fully editable.
There is no field within the Paradigm Builder to do this, however it is possible to add some code to do this using the JSON editor. Please see the Syntax description guide available here: https://www.nordicneurolab.com/help-all/nordicaktiva.
Yes, it is possible to use the NNL ResponseGrips with other stimulus software packages, such as PsychoPy, Presentation, and E-Prime. Responses from ResponseGrips are received by the ResponseGrip Interface. It then forwards the received responses to the NNL SyncBox, which in turn forwards them to the stimulation PC. This means that you need to connect and set up your stimulation software with the NNL SyncBox. For setup instructions, please visit our website, where different guides are available. We are constantly expanding and updating these guides. If you are interested in specific software for which a guide is not available on our website, please contact us at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
Yes, SyncBox can be used in conjunction with other stimulus software packages, such as E-Prime, Presentation, and PsychoPy. You can find different setup instructions on our website, which we are constantly expanding and updating. If you are interested in specific software for which a guide is not available on our website, please contact us at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
nordicAktiva does not support any control of the paradigm content by the subject. The ResponseGrips can be used to indicate a response to a given slide, but it is not possible to include conditional statements such as if.... else.
We do have additional paradigms available to test, and we welcome feedback on these.
Please navigate to the ‘Paradigm Exchange’ page on NNL Forum to access these paradigms.
If you have any further needs or suggestions, please get in touch via applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
No, at the moment the only available response devices we have are the ergonomic ResponseGrips. If you are interested in any other response button devices, please feel free to let us know at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com, as we welcome suggestions for future developments.
Yes! If you plug in a keyboard, you can use Ctrl - to make everything smaller, or Ctrl Shift + to make everything larger. This can be very helpful particularly when editing slides, if you want to shrink the slide tiles to see more on the screen at a time.
Follow these steps:
{
"title": "Sverige Radio P1",
"url": "http://http-live.sr.se/p1-mp3-192"
},
There are two ways to change the orientation of the image:
In both approaches, always check with patients if they can see everything in the correct orientation.
We would love for you to share your own paradigms on our forum and can help you link up with other interested users who may be working on similar experiments. Please zip your paradigm folder and upload it here. We will then be in touch.
Your feedback is very much appreciated!
Please get in touch via applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com if you see that something is not quite as it should be or doesn’t meet your needs.
The VisualSystem HD goggles feature eye-tracking cameras only, and different users may deploy their own choice of eye-tracking analysis software. However, we do partner with Arrington Research Inc, who offer the ViewPoint eye-tracking solution, which we sell l for use with the VisualSystem HD. We have created a user guide on our website, where you can find all the necessary steps for integrating ViewPoint with the VisualSystem HD goggles.
Bringing the LCD monitor closer to the bore than the legs of the stand allow will introduce a high potential risk of damaging the LCD. As a rule of thumb, 10 cm clearance is recommended between the wheels of the LCD stand and the end of the bore.
Once the paradigm has completed, click ‘Save Results’. Then via the File menu, click on ‘Browse log and design files’. The design files will be marked as ‘.des’ with the date and time appended. These can be transferred to your nordicBrainEx workstation by USB drive or similar.
nordicAktiva v2.0.0 provides options for using blocks or individual trials to create a paradigm. By clicking Create New, and then selecting the 'Simple' template, you can drag and drop trials into the paradigm, specify the slides to be included within each trial, and set the duration of each trial. The paradigm design graph to the left of the Session overview will show you the timings of active and baseline trials.
Motion correction and Co-registration in nordicBrainEx are based on rigid body transformation. Co-registration aligns the dynamic images with the structural image. Motion correction on the other hand, aligns all the dynamic image to the first volume within the dynamic series, and generates the translation and rotation parameters.
Leakage correction is very important for DSC perfusion analysis, especially in relation to tumors. Tumors have leaky vasculature and so the contrast agent leaks into extravascular extracellular space and accumulates there. The leakage can lead to over- or underestimation of the cerebral blood volume (CBV), and therefore it is important to correct it. The leakage correction for DSC in nordicBrainEx is based on the residual function described in this article by Bjørnerud et al. (2011). In brief, the method uses the tail of the residual function to estimate the leakage, and unlike the commonly used Weiskoff method, it does not assume a constant mean transit time for all tissue types. More information can be found here.
When normalization is selected, nordicBrainEx normalizes CBV and CBF maps to the normal appearing white and grey matter. The software segments out tumor, blood vessels, and normal-appearing grey and white matter, before dividing the CBV and CBF by the average value within the normal-appearing grey and white matter. A VOI can therefore be drawn in a relevant area of pathology and the mean value may be taken without manually normalizing to a second VOI placed within normal tissue. It can be used to significantly speed up the reporting workflow. More information can be found here.
The DCE module uses a two-compartment exchange (TCx) pharmacokinetic model (Sourbron S, 2009). In brief, the model can be illustrated in the following way:
Where the contrast agent (C) enters the capillary volume due to tissue blood flow (F) and is initially distributed in the tissue plasma volume (Vp), but is gradually equilibrated to the extracellular, extravascular space with volume fraction of Ve, at a rate determined by rate constants Ktrans and kep.
More information can be found here.
Go to nordicComfortPlayer’s settings (gear icon on the lower-left hand side), select the correct camera from the dropdown menu, and set it as default. The patient camera is usually labeled as ‘USB CAMERA’ in the dropdown menu list. When this is done, select the camera icon on the upper-left hand side. You should then be able to see the camera feed.
It is possible that the installation was not successful. This may be the case if the account on the PC does not have administrative privileges. Please re-install Docker using an administrator account. Furthermore, Docker for Windows requires something called a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Make sure you run this installer first from the nordicAktiva installation package, according to the installation instructions. Instructions can be found at https://www.nordicneurolab.com/help-all/nordicaktiva.
When running a paradigm in synchronization with the scanner, log files are automatically saved. This includes cases where paradigms have been aborted and not run to completion.
If the software is closed for any reason during a paradigm run, the log file from that run will be saved once the software is opened again.
Paradigms in nordicAktiva can be made up of blocks, individual trials, or a combination of the two. This means you can create trials which are short ‘events’, with flexible timing, thus making a form of event-related paradigm. For further information and support please consult our paradigm syntax documentation.
If the connection between the SyncBox and PC is established but the ‘s’ char is not sent, you can factory reset the SyncBox. The factory reset option can be found on the on-screen ‘Option Menu’ of the SyncBox. After resetting the SyncBox, reboot the PC and all the associated hardware including the SyncBox.
We are constantly updating our library and are interested in your needs regarding language implementations.
Please contact us applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com to make a request or to discuss how you can implement your required language yourself.
DSC uses T2* based perfusion, while DCE uses T1 based perfusion. While DSC has a higher contrast agent sensitivity and higher temporal resolution, DCE offers better image quality and more linear dose-response. As DCE takes longer than DSC, its acquisition doesn’t always cover the whole brain but instead a few slices are acquired around the tumor to save time.
This might sometimes happen when using the ‘Triggers on every block’ option in the Scanner Settings. If you would like to save your results (log and design files) on completion of a paradigm, but nordicAktiva remains on the ‘Run paradigm’ screen, you can manually proceed to the ‘Save results’ screen using the forward arrow.
Try the following steps:
1. Go to Edit/Settings and under the ‘SyncBox’ tab click on ‘Auto detect’. You should then see a message confirming which port the SyncBox is connected to. After confirming this message, you should be able to see the COM port under ‘Serial/USB port’ dropdown menu. Click on ‘Apply’ and ‘Ok’.
2. If it still doesn’t solve the issue, check the connection between the mini USB port on the side of the SyncBox and the USB port of the PC.
3. Verify that the SyncBox is listed correctly in the ‘Device Manager’ on Windows. Restart the SyncBox and nordicAktiva PC and re-check the above settings in nordicAktiva.
Using the USB cable, SyncBox versions 3.2.0 and older can be recognized by the stimulus presentation PC as a Human Interface Device (HID)/keyboard. The version of the SyncBox can be found on the label underneath. When operating in the HID mode, the SyncBox sends out the letter ‘s’ to the stimulus presentation PC, when a trigger is received from the MR scanner. The ‘HID’ mode needs to be set in the ‘Options menu’ of the SyncBox, but unlike serial mode, no driver is required here.
Serial communication can be established by connecting the mini-USB port on the side of the SyncBox to a USB port on the stimulus presentation PC, which allows for two-way communication between them. In serial mode, the SyncBox can be completely controlled by the stimulus presentation PC and sends out the ASCII code of the character ‘s’, when it receives a trigger from the scanner. For serial communication, the SyncBox needs to be set to ‘Serial’ using its on-screen ‘Options menu’. In addition, to operate the SyncBox in serial mode via USB, Virtual COM Port drivers need to be installed. Make sure that the updated drivers are installed and verify that the SyncBox is listed correctly in the ‘Device Manager’ on Windows. The latest driver can be downloaded from this link.
You can sit with the patient and use nordicAktiva in ‘Preview without SyncBox’ mode.
Run through a few slides of the first active block with them and ask them to perform the task overtly with you.
Alternatively, the ‘fMRI Task Instructions’ document can be used as a guide to sit and explain what the patient can expect.
In either situation, you should ask the patient to rehearse by either showing you the relevant movement they are required to do or giving responses to examples of the language tasks out loud.
Different software packages can be used with our VisualSystemHD goggles such as PsychoPy, Psychtoolbox, Stereoscopic Player or Unity. Guidance documentation can be found here, and is constantly being expanded and updated. If you are interested in specific software for which a guide is not available on our website, please contact us at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
nordicAktiva v2.0.0 uses Docker technology, for reasons of security and flexibility. It does mean that the Docker Desktop application should be installed and running on the PC. If Docker Desktop is not configured to start automatically when starting up the PC, just double click the Docker Desktop icon on the desktop, and wait until you see the status "Engine running". Then you may start nordicAktiva.
Within the Docker Desktop settings, select the option to start the application when you sign in to your computer, but de-select the option to open the Dashboard when Docker Desktop starts. This will mean you no longer have to start it manually.
To see an accurate on-screen accuracy measure, the slides in your paradigm need to have an 'Expected Response'. In the Slide Builder, open a slide for editing, and on the bottom right there is an option to 'Add Expected Response'.
Note that currently there is no way to specify that you specifically do not expect a button press, so slides without an expected response will not be included in the accuracy calculation.
We have different adapters available to make it possible for the VisualSystem HD to be mounted on a variety of MR head coils. Feel free to get in touch with us at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com, if you need more information for your setup.
First check that both computers are on the same network. Then follow the steps below on your computer, i.e., the computer which does not have the license key connected to it.
First check your computer ‘Display settings’. If the LCD monitor is recognized, you should be able to see two monitors under ‘System/Display’, one for the stimulation PC and one for the LCD. You can click on ‘Identify’ to check the allocated number for each display. If you still don’t see any image on the LCD monitor, check the video and power cables to the LCD, power supply (LPS), fiber transmitter (usually placed under the desk in the control room), and nordicAktiva PC (HDMI output), and make sure that they are correctly connected. On the fiber transmitter, both green LED (power) and blue LED (fiber/data) should be on.
The software is a 32-bit application. If your underlying structural data has a high in-plane resolution, the maps used as overlays may be significantly up-sampled, which can cause memory issues.Under ‘Settings’, select ’Limit displayed resolution in MPR’ to downsample your underlay image to a lower resolution.
If the problem remains, try loading fewer image series at one time. It may also help to limit the number of BOLD overlays that are visualized at the same time, if they are of a particularly high resolution or remove any derived data once they are saved into the database.
There is a known issue with some paradigms which have been converted from XML, where the fontsize tag is set to 'null'. This can cause difficulties in interpreting the correct font size to use.
Open the JSON Editor, and under the Defaults drop down (in the Treeview), look for a line "FontSize: NULL". If it is present, you can remove it by clicking on the menu on the left side, at the position of that line of code.
This issue is being resolved in the upcoming update v2.0.1.
There may be a few reasons.
· If your paradigm is starting of its own accord before the scan starts, ensure the Run Mode (Edit menu) is set to Synchronize.
· If the paradigm is stuck on the ‘Starting soon’ slide, ensure that your scanner is giving out a trigger signal at the start of data acquisition.
· For Philips scanners, the ‘Sync. Ext. Trig’ option needs to be enabled within the BOLD protocol.
· The scanner will complete a number of dummy scans prior to starting the acquisition of images. It may then appear as though the paradigm is not starting at the start of the scan; however, you should see that once your first real measurement is being acquired, the paradigm starts.
Try the following steps:
1. Go to Edit/Settings and under the ‘Displays’ tab and select the correct patient display. The patient display is usually the number ‘2’.
2. If you don’t see ‘2’ in the dropdown menu, go to Windows ‘Display settings’ and check if it shows the second monitor. You can check the numbering of the monitors by clicking on ‘Identify’, where a number is allocated to each connected monitor.
3. If you don’t see the second monitor, make sure the LCD power supply in the MR room is on and all the connections are in place. This includes the HDMI connection between the nordicAktiva PC and the Fiber Transmitter as well as the connection between the power supply and the LCD monitor.
This could be due to data accumulation along the route from the camera to the Fiber Transmitter (usually placed under the desk in the control room) and back to the PC, where nordicComfortPlayer is installed. Close the nordicComfortPlayer, and then disconnect and reconnect the power supply on the Fiber Transmitter. Wait a few seconds and then open the nordicComfortPlayer again. This should solve the issue.
If your paradigm includes large audio or video files, there are limitations which can cause some unpredictable behavior. There may be a number of solutions depending on the content. One potential solution is to create and load a long video or audio file for the entire paradigm instead of using multiple video or audio files. For further assistance, please contact our application scientists at applicationsupport@nordicneurolab.com.
Check that the SyncBox is connected and switched on.
Unplug other USB devices and restart nordicAktiva. There may be someconfusion about ports when many USB devices are plugged in.
Make sure you are launching nordicAktiva from the icon on thedesktop. It does not support pinning to the taskbar, so this should be avoided.
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