# Presenting multiple stimuli in parallel and getting mouse response

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026>\
**Category:** Programming Help\
**Tags:** windows\
**Created:** [February 6, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026 "2020-02-06T06:09:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 18\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/1 "2020-02-06T06:09:21Z")

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I’m new to psych toolbox box and familiar with matlab basics. I want to present three stimuli first.say, for example I present images of three restaurants R1,R2,R3, the user can click on any one of the restaurant to view three of its signature dish .e.g clicking on restaurant R1 leads to three signature dish choices S11,S12,S13 . I want all the mouse response of the participant to be recorded by the code the image is tagged with, e.g if they click R1 first and then S11,S12. I want it to be recorded serially as R1,S11,S12. How to implement this in psych tool box?

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**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 7:37am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/2 "2020-02-06T07:37:40Z")

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`GetMouse()` returns the X, Y coordinates and mouse button state. When you draw an image [`Screen('DrawTexture')`] you use a PsychRect `[LEFT TOP RIGHT BOTTOM]` to place it on the screen and, and you can use `IsInRect()` to test if the X/Y position is within the rect of the particular image you drew. It is your responsibility to keep track of which click occured when…

[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetMouse](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetMouse)

[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/Screen-DrawTexture](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/Screen-DrawTexture)

[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/PsychRects](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/PsychRects)

[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/IsInRect](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/IsInRect)

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 8:47am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/3 "2020-02-06T08:47:09Z")

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I need to present already made images as stimuli. is there a function to insert them?

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**Author:** ![dcnieho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dcnieho](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/dcnieho)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 12:12pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/4 "2020-02-06T12:12:24Z")

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There are ways to do that yes. Look here for some demos  
[https://peterscarfe.com/ptbtutorials.html](https://peterscarfe.com/ptbtutorials.html)

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**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 1:15pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/5 "2020-02-06T13:15:02Z")

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Specifically: [https://peterscarfe.com/showimagedemo.html](https://peterscarfe.com/showimagedemo.html)

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 9:44am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/6 "2020-02-10T09:44:29Z")

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@dcnieho @Ian-Max-Andolina I have a couple of doubt regarding my question which is about uploading multiple images and presenting them in parallel.  
1.So here i’m trying to present three images of continents in parallel, one of which the user can click on to view few countries from the corresponding Continent. I’m unable to present multiple images because I’m not sure how to define destination for each texture with the screen function for the corresponding images. now the code which i tried just displays one picture in the top right corner. I want all three pictures to form a row in the middle of the screen, with one picture in the middle and other two on either side.  
2. how to define the mouse response, such that if the user clicks on any of Continent, it will lead to presentation of three more images of countries within that Continent.  
p.s i’m a beginner, so any ideas on how to implement this will be helpful.  
the code so far is ,  
close all  
clear all  
sca  
clc  
PsychDefaultSetup(2);

%finding screen  
screens=Screen(‘Screens’);

screenNumber=max(screens);  
%creating screen  
%opening window with black screen  
black=BlackIndex(screenNumber);

%uploading images from the folder  
Stimulifolder=([‘C:\Users\RAMPRIYADARSHNI\Desktop’ filesep ‘agency experiment’ filesep ‘southamerica’]);  
C1=imread(‘southamerica.png’);  
% C2=imread([Stimulifolder ‘africa.png’]);  
% C3=imread([Stimulifolder ‘europe.png’]);

%opening window  
[window, windowRect]=PsychImaging(‘Openwindow’,screenNumber,black);

%converting C1 image into texture and presenting it  
imageTexture = Screen(‘MakeTexture’, window,C1);  
Screen(‘DrawTexture’, window, imageTexture,[],[200 200 600 600]);  
Screen(‘Flip’, window);

WaitSecs(2);  
sca;

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/7 "2020-02-11T04:31:35Z")

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You are almost there. You create a texture for each image, and a `[rect]` for each image; then you can use `Screen('DrawTextures')` to efficiently draw them in one go (you can also use 3 seperate `'DrawTexture'` commands, but it is less efficient). Next you use `IsInRect` to work out if the mouse is inside one of the rects and perform some logical action. In my sample 3 images are shown and a mouse hover over the first highlights the image with a yellow box; you need to change the logic for your case to present the next set of images.

```matlab
PsychDefaultSetup(2);
screen=max(Screen('Screens'));
C1=imread('I1.png');
C2=imread('I2.png');
C3=imread('I3.png');
%opening window
[window, windowRect]=PsychImaging('Openwindow', screen, [0.2 0.2 0.2], [0 0 900 900]);
xcen = windowRect(3)/2;
ycen = windowRect(4)/2;
% make a texture for each picture
T1 = Screen('MakeTexture', window, C1);
T2 = Screen('MakeTexture', window, C2);
T3 = Screen('MakeTexture', window, C3);
T = [T1 T2 T3]; %make an vector of texture pointers
% make a rect for each
rect1 = CenterRectOnPointd([0 0 200 200], xcen-(xcen/2), ycen)';
rect2 = CenterRectOnPointd([0 0 200 200], xcen, ycen)';
rect3 = CenterRectOnPointd([0 0 200 200], xcen+(xcen/2), ycen)';
rects = [rect1 rect2 rect3]; %row for each rect
vbl = Screen('Flip',window); startT = vbl;
while vbl <= startT + 5
	Screen('DrawTextures', window, T,[],rects);
	[x,y]=GetMouse(window);
	if IsInRect(x, y, rect1) %check mouse is inside rect1
		Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 1 0], rect1, 5);
	end
	vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
end
sca

```

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 9:14am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/8 "2020-02-11T09:14:00Z")

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Thank you so much for taking time to respond. one more query.I have changed the condition to the way i want, so moving the cursor onto the continent , displays its countries. But is there a function instead of IsInRect which will allow the user to click on the Continent to view the countries. And i want to log all the mouse responses, in which order the user clicks it.

> ```
> vbl = Screen('Flip',window); startT = vbl;
> while vbl <= startT + 1000
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,T,[],rects);
> [x,y]=GetMouse(window);
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1) %check mouse is inside rect1
>     		
> Screen('DrawTextures',window,t1,[],rects);
> end
> if IsInRect(x,y,rect2)
>             
> Screen('DrawTextures',window,t2,[],rects);
> end
>        
> if IsInRect(x,y,rect3)
> Screen('DrawTextures',window,t3,[],rects);
> end
> vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
> end
> sca
> 
> ```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/9 "2020-02-11T11:47:33Z")

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`GetMouse` returns button presses:

[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetMouse](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetMouse)

Therefore just get the buttons and `&&` that in your logic. PTB will not log any of this, you need to do it yourself:

```auto
whatClicked = struct();
startT = GetSecs;
nTrials = 1;
while nTrials <= 10
	nextPhase = false;
	while nextPhase == false
		Screen('DrawTextures', window, T,[],rects);
		vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
		[x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
		if IsInRect(x,y,rect1) && any(buttons)
			nextPhase = true;
			whatClicked(nTrials).option = 1; %#ok<*SAGROW>
			whatClicked(nTrials).time = GetSecs-startT;	
		elseif IsInRect(x,y,rect2) && any(buttons)
			nextPhase = true;
			whatClicked(nTrials).option = 2; 
			whatClicked(nTrials).time = GetSecs-startT;	
		elseif IsInRect(x,y,rect3) && any(buttons)
			nextPhase = true;
			whatClicked(nTrials).option = 3; 
			whatClicked(nTrials).time = GetSecs-startT;	
		end
	end
	while false
	% your next phase code here
	end
	Screen('Flip', window); WaitSecs(1); %inter trial time
	nTrials = nTrials + 1;
end

```

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:26am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/10 "2020-02-12T06:26:40Z")

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I don’t understand whats the function of the code below.

> ```
> whatClicked(nTrials).option = 1; %#ok<*SAGROW>
> whatClicked(nTrials).time = GetSecs-startT;
> 
> ```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:49am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/11 "2020-02-12T06:49:38Z")

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This is just logging for each trial (`nTrials` = number of the trial), which of the three pictures was clicked (`option` = 1, 2 or 3) and the time is the time relative to the start of the experiment (`GetSecs-startT`). So you can then check for e.g. what the subject clicked on the third trial with `whatClicked(3).option`. This nothing to do with PTB, it is just the sort of logic you need to keep track of what your subjects are doing when.

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/12 "2020-02-13T06:11:19Z")

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Thanks makes sense. Is there a function similar to KbWait for mouse response, where the stimulus is present till the next mouse response.

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**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 6:59am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/13 "2020-02-13T06:59:15Z")

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Not that I know of, but it would be easy to write your own, something like this (untested):

```matlab
function [x,y,buttons] = WaitMouse(window)
  x=[]; y=[]; buttons=[];
  while 1
    [x,y,buttons] = GetMouse(window);
    if any(buttons)
        break;
    end
  end
end

```

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 11:06am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/14 "2020-02-13T11:06:31Z")

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> [@Presenting multiple stimuli in parallel and getting mouse response](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/6):
>
> @dcnieho @Ian-Max-Andolina I have a couple of doubt regarding my question which is about uploading multiple images and presenting them in parallel. 1.So here i’m trying to present three images of continents in parallel, one of which the user can click on to view few countries from the corresponding Continent. I’m unable to present multiple images because I’m not sure how to define destination for each texture with the screen function for the corresponding images. now the code which i tried …

One more question regarding the code i’m working on. i have tried to implement using while loop as the below code. i do not understand why my second loop is skipped  
%level 1 displays images of three continents, when clicked on either one of them, it leads to level 2 where countries within the clicked continent appears and when clicked on, leads to level three which has information about countries, its food, culture etc. P.s code is not yet complete for rect2,rect 3 of level 3.

```
        > level_1=true;

```

> ```
> while level_1==true
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,T,[],rects);
> [x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
> % europe response
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1)
> Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 0 0], rect1,5)
>         
> if any (buttons)
> level_2=true;
> level_1=false;
> europe=true;
> end
>             
>     
>          
> %south america response
> elseif IsInRect(x,y,rect2)
> Screen('FrameRect',window,[1 0 0],rect2,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_2=true;
> level_1=false;
> southamerica=true;
> end
>     
> % africa response
> elseif IsInRect(x,y,rect3)
> Screen('FrameRect',window,[1 0 0],rect3,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_2=true;
> level_1=false;
> africa=true;
> end
> end
> vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
>     
> end
> %LEVEL 2:COUNTRIES (GREECE,SPAIN,FRANCE)
> while level_2==true
> if europe==true
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,t1,[],rects);
> [x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1)
> Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 0 0], rect1,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_3=true;
> level_2=false;
> greece=true;
> end
>             
> end
>    
>     
> elseif southamerica==true
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,t2,[],rects);
> [x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1)
> Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 0 0], rect1,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_3=true;
> level_2=false;
> end
>             
> end
>     
>     
> elseif africa==true
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,t3,[],rects);
> [x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1)
> Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 0 0], rect1,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_3=true;
> level_2=false;
> end
>             
> end
> end
> vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
>    
>   
> end
> 
> %LEVEL3: INFORMATION ON EACH COUNTRIES (CULTURE,HISTORY&POLITICS,FOOD)
> while level_3==true
> if greece==true
> Screen('DrawTextures', window,t11,[],rects);
> [x,y,buttons]=GetMouse(window);
> if IsInRect(x,y, rect1)
> Screen('FrameRect', window , [1 0 0], rect1,5)
> if any (buttons)
> level_3=false;
> end
> end
> end
> vbl = Screen('Flip', window);
>     
>     
> end
> 
> ```

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**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/15 "2020-02-13T15:45:08Z")

</div>

GetClicks does that:  
[http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetClicks](http://psychtoolbox.org/docs/GetClicks)

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 7:53am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/16 "2020-02-14T07:53:53Z")

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thanks.what is the difference between GetMouse and GetClicks? Get click waits for the mouse click while get mouse is just for tracking? i dont undersatnd what buttons in the get mouse function means.

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**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 8:38am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/17 "2020-02-14T08:38:53Z")

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`GetClicks` is a wrapper around `GetMouse` (i.e. it uses `GetMouse`, read the code), handling the logic of recording multiple mouse clicks (unless you set `interClickSecs` to 0), whereas `GetMouse` returns the current state of the mouse immediately.

`buttons` is an array of which button (left,right,middle) was pressed. From the help:

> “buttons” is a 1xN matrix where N is the number of  
> mouse buttons. Each element of the matrix represents one mouse button.  
> The element is true (1) if the corresponding mouse button is pressed and  
> false (0) otherwise.

I’m not sure why your loop fails, you should use the MATLAB step debugger and step line-by-line to work out what is going wrong, you can use `PsychDebugWindowConfiguration` so you can see and manipulate the debugger if you are using a single screen…

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ram/32/46_2.png) [@RAM](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/presenting-multiple-stimuli-in-parallel-and-getting-mouse-response/3026/18 "2020-02-15T15:02:19Z")

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Thanks for the clarification. 🙂