Introduction

The SOLO (Support voor Onderzoek, Laboratoria en Onderwijs) department features two teams that support the SSH labs and research: 

• Research support: deals with development of custom research software and hardware; data processing matters; scientific consultancy; XR technology, etc.  The research support team consists of the following members: 
  • ir. Elío Sjak-Shie: Research engineer and team-lead 
  • Iris Spruit, MSc: Research technician 
  • Kerwin Olfers, MSc: Research technician
  • Maarten Struijk-Wilbrink, MSc: XR research developer
  • Vennila Vilvanathan, MSc: XR research developer

• Lab support: handles matters regarding lab facilities and ICT; inventory management; data collection equipment administration and troubleshooting; safety; etc.  The lab support team consists of the following members: 
  • ing. Maureen Meekel, Labmanager 
  • Evert Dekker, Senior lab technician 
  • ing. Jarik den Hartog, Lab technician 
  • Michel Sjollema, Lab technician

For more information about SOLO, see Support for Research, Laboratories and Education (SOLO) - Leiden University. 

Support Areas

Together, the research and lab support teams provide support to researchers of the Psychology, and Child and Education Studies institutes; and as of 2023, other members belonging to the new Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) umbrella. 

Separately, the research and lab support teams have their own specific support categories, as outlined below.

Research Support

The research support team focusses on research engineering projects and scientific consultancy, and the services it provides can be divided into the following categories:  

• Behavioral data collection: Supporting researchers with building experimental tasks administered both in the SSH labs and online using various task-building software. 
• Physiological data collection: Providing support with software and hardware used in physiological research, such as eye tracking, hemodynamics, etc. 
• Engineered solutions: Designing and developing custom research setups and scientific software. 
• XR: Providing support for XR-related hardware and software. XR support is provided by the XR technicians within the research support team; aka SOSXR.   
• Consultancy and operations: Providing advice to researchers and other involved parties; and handling matters regarding research support operations, e.g. HPC cluster, software packaging and testing, maintenance of fabrication facilities, etc.  

Lab Support

The lab support team focusses on facilities and equipment, and its services can be categorized into the following areas:  

• Resource provisioning and management: Managing the provisioning and allocation of research resources, such as labs, equipment, disposables, etc. The lab support team is also responsible for procurement, inventory management, and all administrative tasks related to lab and research resources. 
• Technical support: First-line technical support for researchers at the PdlC and Sylvius labs. This includes handling support requests related to the use of lab facilities, lab equipment and data acquisition software. 
• Compliance: Ensuring that all research equipment and facilities comply with applicable standards and regulations. This includes performing electrical safety inspections, maintaining hygiene standards, and establishing emergency procedures.  
• Development of lab hardware: Designing and implementing custom lab hardware provisions, such as patch panels, trigger devices, etc. 
• LIBC support: Providing support for peripheral equipment and research software usage at the LIBC MRI scanner.  
• Consultancy and project management: Providing technical advice to researchers and other parties regarding matters involving the aforementioned areas of responsibilities.  

Project Showcase

Expertise

The SOLO research and lab support teams have extensive experience across a wide range of research support technologies and services. Our skillset include:

• Mechanical and electronic design and fabrication: we can design and fabricate custom mechatronic solutions; including custom PCBs, robot-based interactive experiments, custom stimulation devices, custom input devices, etc.
• Software development: we can develop offline and web-based computer experiments, as well as custom data preprocessing and analysis pipelines.
• XR development: we (help) can build immersive experiments, using custom 3D environments and/or integrating 360°.
• Lab provisioning: we can create and set up custom experimental environments tailored to social and behavioral science research, including specialized hardware, software, and interactive setups designed to support a wide range of study designs and methodologies.

Projects

A brief overview of some of our past projects is provided below. Please contact us if you want to know more about these projects. 

BODHI

The BODHI (Body Ownership and Dummy Hand Illusion) device is a machine that uses two brushing robots to automatically induce the rubber (dummy) hand illusion. The participant's hand is inserted into the machine and hidden from the participant, while brushed by one robot. The participant sees another robot synchronously brushing a rubber hand. On a screen, stimuli or questions can be displayed and the participant can use their free hand to respond. BODHI is currently being used in research by the PRSM lab.

PEPPA

PEPPA (Pneumatic Electronic Pressure Pulse Apparatus) is a custom-built pneumatic pain device. This device converts compressed air into precisely controllable mechanical pressure, which then produces non-harmful pain sensations in participants. Two PEPPA devices have been built. The devices can be used with the MRI scanner and can be controlled via Python, E-Prime, etc.

Publications:

• Karacaoglu, M., Peerdeman, K. J., Numans, M. E., Stok, M. R., Meijer, S., Klinger, R., Veldhuijzen, D. S., van Middendorp, H. & Evers, A. M. (2023). Nocebo hyperalgesia in patients with fibromyalgia and healthy controls: An experimental investigation of conditioning and extinction processes at baseline and 1-month follow-up. The Journal of Pain, 24, 1696-1711.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2023.05.003

TASTE

The TASTE (TASTE is an Administrator of Solutions for Taste Experiments) device is a device that administers solutions to a participant. It uses pumps and syringes to accurately measure and administer the solutions. The device is used in taste experiments and is fit for usage at an MRI scanner. An OpenSesame task is used to control the device.

PhysioData Toolbox

The PhysioData Toolbox is a free, easy-to-use and fully graphical application for visualizing, segmenting and analyzing physiological data, such as ECG, skin conductance and pupil data. It is written in MATLAB and created to simplify and optimize the process of cleaning and segmenting physiological data, as no such application previously existed. The PhysioData Toolbox has been used by many researchers from both within and outside of Leiden University since its creation in 2016.

Marker Devices

To segment physiological data, such as EEG or ECG signals, it is necessary to send event markers from the stimulus PC to the physiological data acquisition hardware. Traditionally, this was done via the parallel port; however, a parallel port is no longer standard or easily added to a PC or laptop. Therefore, the UsbParMarker and EVA devices were created. The UsbParMarker is a device that is connected to the USB port of the stimulus PC or laptop, allowing you to send markers. The EVA is also connected to the USB port and can send markers as well as process input from button boxes commonly used in EEG studies. 

Tone Marker Device

The Tone Marker device translates high-frequency tones (≥ 15 kHz) into TTL markers. This allows any application with an audio output (e.g. virtual reality games, websites, cellphones) to send custom markers (values ranging from 0 up to 255) by embedding these marker tones in the audio output. The tones are filtered out and not audible to the participants. 

Markers Plugin and Package

To easily communicate with the UsbParMarker and EVA from task software, various plugins/packages have been developed. The OpenSesame markers plugin can be easily installed and is used to send markers from an OpenSesame task. This plugin uses the python-markers library. To send markers from PsychoPy or other Python applications, the python-markers library can be used directly. The E-Prime markers package can be used to send markers from E-Prime. Finally, the web-parmarker library can be used to send markers from online tasks with a UsbParMarker.

Timing Tester

The timing tester is an easy to use tool for validating the timing of your visual stimulus. The timing tester reports the offset of the time that a marker was sent at the start of a stimulus and the actual start of the stimulus as measured with a photo diode on the monitor. The timing tester can be used as a drop-in replacement of the UsbParMarker, so any task that uses a UsbParMarker (e.g. in OpenSesame or E-Prime), can use this timing tester. See Github for more information: solo-fsw/timing_tester. If you need help with timing in your task, contact labsupport@fsw.leidenuniv.nl. 

Prisoners Dilemma

Custom hardware and software were developed for a dyadic prisoners dilemma game setup. The setup features two participant stations, each consisting of a touchscreen inside a custom enclosure mounted on a desktop microphone stand; and a separate two-button input device with a privacy dome to prevent the participants from seeing each other's button presses. The prisoners dilemma game was programmed in Python.

VR Psychedelic Experiment Lowlands

A custom setup and support was provided for the virtual trip study on Lowlands 2023. Read and watch all about this study here: Lowlands as lab: virtual trips in the name of science - Leiden University.

VR Driving Simulator

An open-source driving simulator previously built at the TU Eindhoven was adapted to be used in new ways. Originally, the driving sim was meant to be used with one participant viewing on a flat-screen monitor, one participant driving a wheel whilst wearing an HMD, and the final participant wearing both a full-body tracking suit and an HMD (see image below).

The adapted version however required three participants wearing HMDs, while one person was behind the wheel, and all of them situated in the same vehicle. The car needed to have both an automated mode, and a manual-driving mode.

VR SHINE Therapy

SHINE was created as part of the PhD of Nina Krupljanin. It is designed to be a valuable addition to already existing trauma-therapy. While the therapeutic intervention can often be quite helpful, Nina's research has suggested that some areas were not dealt with adequately, most notably feelings of shame regarding both the nature of the trauma, and the need for therapy. 

VR SKAI HerbeleVR

The HerbeleVR project grew naturally out of SHINE. Whilst SHINE is built for the people with the trauma, HerbeleVR is built for those around the person with the trauma.

One thing that people with traumas can often have to deal with is suddenly and intensely reliving (parts of) the original trauma. They can during for instance feel strong emotions, experience intense physical sensations, and see or hear elements of the trauma. While no person relives the same things or to the same intensity, it is quite clear that these 'herbelevingen' are both distressing and distracting.

In HerbeleVR the goal was to educate people who do not have these flashbacks, such as parents, therapists, or teachers. It is designed to let these people experience what such a flashback could feel like.

VR Storytelling and Empathy

This project is part of Small Grants Research Projects from the Centre of Digital Humanities. The sense of embodiment in Virtual Reality allows the user to explore a real life story of an author experiencing racism first-hand in a train.

Lighthouse Bracket

The lighthouse bracket makes it super easy to move your VR lighthouse from one lab to another lab. There is no need to drill, tape or glue the lighthouse to the wall or ceiling. Instead, just plug it into a power outlet and you are ready to start your VR experiment!

 DS5 Signal Generator

The Digitimer DS5 is a stimulator used to administer electrical pain stimuli to a participant. To easily control the DS5 from task software such as OpenSesame or E-Prime, a custom interface was built, the DS5 Signal Generator.

Heartbeat Auditory Feedback

The heartbeat audio feedback task can be used for interoception studies. It uses an Arduino to play audio (beep) on each heartbeat with a certain delay, so that the beeps can be in sync with the participant's heartbeat, or out of sync. ECG is measured with BIOPAC which in turn sends pulses on each heartbeat to the Arduino that elicits a beep. From the stimulus PC and the stimulus software one can communicate with the Arduino. For more information, see Github: solo-fsw/heartbeat-auditory-feedback.

Blind Date Experiment

A custom setup and analysis pipeline were created for a blind dating experiment of the CoPAN lab. In this experiment, physiological signals of two participants that participated in a blind date were measured, including cardiology, skin conductance, pupil size and gaze direction. Physiological signals were preprocessed with the PhysioData Toolbox and the synchronization of these physiological signals were further analyzed.

Publications:

• Prochazkova, E., Sjak-Shie, E., Behrens, F., Lindh, D. & Kret, M. E. (2021). Physiological synchrony is associated with attraction in a blind date setting. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 269-278. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01197-3

Matrix Response Board

This Matrix Response Board allows participants to give a response on a two-dimensional grid, without using a screen. The responses can be processed by task software such as E-Prime or OpenSesame. Two of these boards were used in a dyadic experiment where the participants were wearing eye tracking glasses and the use of a screen was not desirable.

Publications:

• Behrens, F., Snijdewint, J. A., Moulder, R. G., Prochazkova, E., Sjak-Shie, E. E., Boker, S. M. & Kret, M. E. (2020). Physiological synchrony is associated with cooperative success in real-life interactions. Scientific Reports, 10, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76539-8

VAS Sliders

Usually, a visual analog scale is presented on a screen, (e.g. through a task built E-Prime or OpenSesame) but with these VAS sliders, participants can give their responses without using a screen.

SSH Labs

The lab and research support teams are responsible for provisioning the research labs used in the SSH domain. These labs include the Sylvius building labs, the PdlC basement labs, the LIBC MIR scanner lab, and LUBEC. 

Sylvius Labs

The pictures below give and impression of the Sylvius labs, of which the construction was finished in 2023. 

PdlC Labs

The construction of the Pieter de la Court (PdlC) basement labs will be finished in spring 2025. Pictures will follow soon.