Summary of .par file format for mrVista 2.0
Started by rory sayres, 08/08/2005

The format is as follows: a tab-delimited ASCII text file with the
following columns:

(1) [\tab] (2) [\tab] (3) [\tab] (4) [\tab] (5) [\tab] (6) [\tab] (7)

where: (1) is the onset time in seconds;
       (2) is an integer specifying an event type, with 0 specifying
           a 'baseline' or 'null' condition;
       (3) is a text label specifying the name of a condition. (Only
           the first occurrence of a condition is parsed to get the 
           name);
       (4) specifies a color to associate w/ each condition, for use
           in visualizing data that is sorted by condition. The color
           is specified in matlab format, either a single letter
           (e.g. 'w' for 'white', 'r' for 'red', 'm' for 'magenta')
           or the format '[R G B]' where R, G, and B are the relative
           intensities of the red, green and blue channels, each ranging
           from 0-1 (see 'help plot');
       (5) specifies a path to an image to associate w/ each condition,
           for use in visualizing data that is sorted by condition;
       (6) and (7) specify behavioral data, such as response times
           or correct/incorrect responses.

  All columns except for (1) and (2) are optional. If you don't have
  information for a column, but would like to include it for a later
  column, you can add the text '' or [] for that column (or add two
  tabs).

Importantly, .par files here have an implicit assumption that 
there's always _something_ going on during an experiment: events don't 
have a separately-specified duration, but are assumed to continue
until the next event starts. Therefore, you may want to specify
explicitly the end of a scan as a separate event (which can be 
assigned to a null condition or a negative number, if you like).