fMRI-Compatible Music Controllers

Participants: Avrum Hollinger, Marcelo M. Wanderley (supervisor), Christopher Steele, Virginia Penhune (Concordia University), and Robert Zatorre (Montreal Neurological Institute).

Funding: Concordia University (Pehnhune), Canadian Foundation for Innovation, NSERC Discovery Grant (M. Wanderley); CIRMMT student funds (Avrum Hollinger) 2007-2008.

Project Type: Collaborative project (BRAMS - Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound).

Period: Sept. 2006 - to date. Status: ongoing.

This project focuses on the development of various musical interfaces that can be used inside MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners. Initially an electronic piano keyboard and computer mouse were designed. The piano controller allows neuroscientists studying motor learning of musical tasks to perform functional scans of a subject's brain while synchronizing the scanner, auditory and visual stimuli, and auditory feedback with the onset, offset, and velocity of the piano keys.

Initial results are positive as the keyboard performed adequately within the MRI scanner during preliminary tests, capturing MIDI voice messages in synchrony with the behavioural stimuli and MR images while causing no apparent image artifacts. Improvements to the optical assembly and keyboard bed are planned in order to increase the robustness of the design.

Avrum Hollinger, Virginia Penhune, Robert Zatorre, Christopher Steele, Marcelo M. Wanderley. "fMRI-Compatible Electronic Controllers." In Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME07), New York City, USA, pp. 246-249.