How to run: cerebAAF
Special circumstances: part of battery
This experiment is part of the cerebellar battery run in 2022-2023.
- For controls, it is in the FIRST session (adaptation and compensation together).
- For patients at UW, it is in the SECOND session (adaptation and compensation together).
- For patients at UCSF, it is in the THIRD session (compensation only; adaptation is a separate experiment with MEG).
In this battery, participants come in for multiple sessions and do multiple experiments in a row. As such, this is a bare bones document on how to run the experiment. Procedures for consent, hearing screening, awareness surveys, general equipment set up, and payment are not included in this document. See the documents below for how these procedures are implemented in this multi-study session:
- Protocol for cerebellar battery: controls
- For patients
What's special about this experiment
This experiment has the option to run just 'adapt' (adaptation experiment), just 'comp' (compensation experiment), or 'both' (adaptation followed by compensation). The adaptation experiment can also be run by itself with the option 'adapt_short', which has 80 trials instead of 200, and stops before the passage reading portion. At UW, we will use the option 'both'. At UCSF, session three will use 'comp'.
You will need the RAINBOW PASSAGE for this experiment if you are doing the adaptation portion. (You don't need this if doing 'adapt_short'.) In the adaptation portion, participants do one run, then take a break to read the rainbow passage, and then do a second run.
Prepping for participant
This experiment uses:
- Audapter
- Focusrite Scarlett
- Closed-back headphones
- Microphone (head-mounted or stand)
- Rainbow passage (adaptation experiment only)
Before running this experiment, you need to check the audio levels of the noise over the headphones, as well as the noise + participant speech (if at UW, see this document for more details.)
- Controls at UW: You will have to recheck the levels after running the previous experiment (pacedVOT)
- Patients at UW: this is the first experiment of session 2, so conduct the equipment checks as part of session preparation.
Pre-experiment instructions
Tell the participant: "In this experiment, you will be speaking and listening. When you see the word on screen, read it out loud, just like you would normally say it. You will be speaking into the microphone on the desk, and you will hear your own voice and some noise played back through these headphones. Do you have any questions?"
- If adapt: "This experiment will have four different sections."
- If adapt_short: "This experiment will have two different sections."
- If comp: "This experiment will have three different sections."
- If both: "This experiment will have six different sections."
Type run_cerebAAF_expt into the command window and hit enter. You will be prompted to type in adapt, adapt_short, comp, or both. Type in the appropriate experiment for your site and hit enter.
Pretest phase: LPC order
In all cases, the first task that will come up is an LPC order check.
"For this first section, you will see one word at a time appear on the screen."
Use the check_audapterLPC GUI to find an appropriate LPC for this participant. If you need to fix the vowel boundaries, use the Change OSTs button.
Adaptation section
If you are running "adapt" or "both" or "adapt_short", the adaptation section will be next.
Tell the participant: "This next speaking section lasts about 10 minutes. Read each word when it appears on screen."
For adapt_short: After 80 trials, the experiment will conclude.
For both or adapt: Run first 160 trials. After trial 160, there will be a message on screen saying “Time for a break,” and the command window will say “Pausing experiment for passage reading.”
Tell the participant: "In this next section, you'll be reading a short passage. Please pick up the sheet of paper on the table in front of you titled 'The Rainbow Passage'. You'll be reading the text on this paper out loud. While you speak, you will hear your own voice and noise through the headphones. Do you have any questions before we start?
Great. When you are ready, let me know and I will start our recording system. When you hear the noise start through the headphones, you can go ahead and read the passage out loud.."
Follow the command window prompts to start the Audapter feedback and stop it once they’ve read the passage.
Tell the participant: There are a few more speaking trials with single words again.
Start the “adaptation run 2”.
Compensation section
If you are running "comp", this will be first. If you are running "both", this will be second.
This experiment starts with duration training to get the participant saying the vowel at an optimal duration where feedback can be used, but is not too unnaturally slow.
Tell the participant:
Next, we will do some practice speaking trials where we will try to get you to talk at a particular speed. Read the words aloud as they appear, just as you did previously. Try to speak in a way that is a bit more stretched out than how you would normally talk, but still somewhat natural. For example, instead of saying “head” I might say “heeeead.” After you say each word, you will get some feedback about the speed of your speech. The computer may tell you to speak slower or faster. If you spoke at a good speed, you will see a green circle.
If the participant had trouble, give them some tips. This tasks is challenging for many people. Just remember that the most important part is that their vowel is long enough that they can hear their own vowel formants and compensate for them.
You should try to have them get 7 out of 10 or better. If they’ve got the gist but the automated system isn’t cooperating, you can tell them, “you’re doing great – just keep doing that and ignore what the computer says.”
If they got less than 7/10, choose redo. Once they got 7/10 or better, tell the participant: You’ll now be doing the same task with more trials. You will still get feedback about the speed of your speech. This section lasts about 10 minutes.
Choose move on.
If Matlab crashes during the experiment
As of 10/21/2022 RK is unaware of a restart script for this experiment.