Discussion
The fMRI compatible robot opens up new possibilities for experiments in the neuroscience of motor control. The most critical step in the setup is the shielding of the robot to prevent artifacts in the fMRI, which we do in two steps. First, the robot itself is about 9' away from the bore with a long, lightweight, handle supported in its middle with a 3 degree of freedom joint . Second, the robot is encased in a 1/16"-1/4" aluminum box with a plastic conical (13" base diameter, 6" top diameter x 42" long) waveguide with aluminum foil shielding that was calculated to block ˜100dB of noise in the fMRI relevant frequency band, >100 MHz. In the future, copper shielding could be used to replace the aluminum foil on the cone, but it currently performs satisfactorily as is at a substantial cost and weight saving. Also, to further expand the scope of the equipment, we plan to incorporate simultaneous EEG/fMRI with the current system.