Legacy procedure for the ET mirror

Placing the infrared mirror

  • Detach the standard mirror's frame from the head coil, if it is placed there. Remove unnecessary items from the scanning bed, and prepare the mirror to attach the infrared mirror of the ET at a later step.
  • Prepare two long strips of tape and leave them in a convenient place to attach the ET mirror later. E.g., attach the corner of each strip to the back part of the mirror frame.

  • Go back to the control room and take the infrared mirror out of the «fMRI usage» box. DO NOT EXTRACT THE MIRROR OUT FROM ITS BOX YET. The mirror's box is labeled as RELIQUIA DI SAN GENNARO to emphasize that THIS IS THE MOST DELICATE PART, BECAUSE THE MIRROR CANNOT BE REPLACED NOR CLEANED. This mirror is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE.

    infrared-mirror

  • Get two gloves (e.g., from the box hanging at the entrance of the scanner room), then approach the scanner bed. Put the gloves on, and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING. You MUST have the standard mirror dismounted and in front of you at this point. WITH THE GLOVES proceed to extract the infra-red mirror from its box, being extremely careful. YOU CAN ONLY TOUCH THE MIRROR WITH GLOVES, because it cannot be cleaned up. Watch out for FINGERPRINTS and once taken out of its box, IMMEDIATELY PROCEED TO ATTACH IT to the standard coil mirror. The mirror MUST NOT be placed anywhere else if not in its box.

  • WITH YOUR GLOVES ON, attach the ET mirror to the standard coil mirror (the larger mirror that points toward projector's screen at the back of the scanning room) using the scotch tape strips you prepared before. Put it more or less in the center, although this position may need to be adjusted (being careful and with the same precautions explained before). Do not touch the surface of the ET mirror.

    et-mirror-attached

    The infrared mirror MUST be airtight attached

    It is critical that there is no air gap between the infrared mirror and the standard mirror. Also, make sure the scotch tape is firmly glued to the standard mirror because the infrared mirror will be hanging when placed on the coil and may loosen up creating a gap with the standard mirror.

    Suggestion

    Since we are going to track the right eye only, it is useful to displace the infrared mirror to the right from the participant's standpoint and cut the scotch tape narrower to occlude less surface of the mirrors on the right side.

  • Place the mirror frame back on the head coil. As always, DO NOT TOUCH THE MIRROR.