CrossModal Study

# README

##Contact person

[e-mail], ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3461-038X

## Overview

#Project Name

"CrossModal Study"

##Task

Participants received cues to prepare for the target (auditory or visual).
Between cue and target were 3 seconds of task-irrelevant waiting time. For the duration of this interval, the fixation cross was frequency-tagged at 36 Hz and an amplitude modulated 40 Hz tone was played.
The target was either a gabor-patch or a short tone.
Participants were asked to differentiate one of 3 targets of each modality and indicate them with the arror buttons on the keyboard (e.g. low pitch tone left arrow button, middle pitch tone, arrow down button,...).
In block one, targets were presented without distractors. In block 2, the target was always presented alongside a distractor from the target pool of the other modality (e.g. target visual, distractor auditory)
For an illustration of the timing of the task refer to stimuli folder (task.png).
Prior to the start of the recording, the difficulty of the stimuli was calibrated for both the auditory and the visual condition separately.
For a detailed description of the task see: (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.106050.1).

##Task Instructions

Welcome and thank you for taking part in our experiment!
'From this moment on, the experiment will roughly take 1 hour and 20 minutes.
If anything is wrong, please contact the experimenter any time.
We will first calibrate the task difficulty.
We will show you three discs with varying amount of stripes.
Your task will be to determine whether the disc you saw was the one with the least, the medium, or the highest amount of stripes.
Press the middle button to continue.

(stimuli shown)

if you see the disc with the least amount of stripes, please press the left button.
if you see the disc with the medium amount of stripes, please press the middle button.
if you see the disc with the most amount of stripes, please press the right button.
if you feel ready, press the middle button to continue.

Your answer is timed, please try to accurately identify the target, while also reacting as fast as you can.
The discs only appear for a very brief moment, so you need to look closely.
If you have any questions, please inform the experimenter.
If you understand the task, you can press the middle button to start.

(calibration starts - determines the amount of stripes in each target)

Great! The first part is done.
We will now calibrate another part of the task involving tones.
We will play three tones with different pitches.
Your task will be to determine whether the pitch you heard was the lowest, medium, or the highest.
Press the middle button to continue.

(tones played)

if you hear the tone with the lowest pitch, please press the left button.
if you hear the tone with the medium pitch, please press the middle button.
if you hear the tone with the highest pitch, please press the right button.
if you feel ready, press the middle button to continue.

Your answer is timed, please try to accurately identify the target, while also reacting as fast as you can.
If you have any questions, please inform the experimenter.
If you understand the task, you can press the middle button to start.

(calibration starst - determines the tone pitch for the target tones)

Perfect! Now we can begin with the real experiment.
From this moment on, the experiment will roughly take 1 hour and 10 minutes.
If anything is wrong, please contact the experimenter any time.
In MEG-studies, it is important to be as MOTIONLESS as possible (even when moving the eyes or blinking)
So please try to refrain from body movements and reduce blinking to a minimal level you can still feel comfortable with.
You will have time to move and close your eyes in the breaks, so please use this time.
Please press the middle button to continue.

Please fixate the cross in the center of the screen.
After a short while, one of the following two symbols will appear: (cues shown)
They will tell you the whether your target will be a disc or a tone.
Subsequently, you will see a flickering cross and hear a noisy sound for about 3 seconds.
They are not important for you. During this time, continue to focus the cross at the center of the screen.
AFTER THIS, the target will appear.
Press the middle button to see and hear the targets we calbrated for you again.

(targets shown and played)

Use the button box in your right hand to identify the target that was presented to you.
If you saw the visual symbol, your target will always be a disc. If you saw the auditory symbol, your target will always be a tone.

Visual: least amount of stripes (LEFT BUTTON), medium amount of strips (MIDDLE BUTTON) and highest number of stripes (RIGHT BUTTON)
Auditory: low tone (LEFT BUTTON), middle tone (MIDDLE BUTTON) and high tone (RIGHT BUTTON).
Your answer is timed, please try to accurately identify the target, while also reacting as fast as you can.
There will be 16 blocks until the experiment is finished.
If you have any questions, please inform the experimenter.
If you understand the task, you can press the middle button to start the experiment.

## Methods

### Subjects

All participants were healthy controls.

inclusion criteria: normal or corrected-to-normal vision, no history of psychiatric or neurological illness (self-report)

### Task organization

2 blocks with 2 conditions

Block 1
1. auditory cue --> auditory target
2. visual cue --> visual target
Block 2
1. auditory cue --> auditory target, visual distractor
2. visual cue --> visual target, auditory distractor

trials inside a block were randomly sequenced and balanced out.

### Additional data acquired

eye-link data to monitor eye-movement

### Experimental location

Birmingham University, United Kingdom

### Missing data

sub-07 aborted the experiment after the 10th block because of feeling unwell and only had 42% of the trials correct.
The participants was exlucded from the experiment.

Acquisition dates were anonymised (01.01.2023, the year in which the study was recorded).
Acquisition time of day is correct.