Syllabus

Details

  • What: Course “Neuroimaging: from image to inference”.
  • Code: psyc 6042
  • When: Spring 2011 – Monday from 9:05-11:55am.
  • Where: Center for Advanced Brain Imaging Conference Room (www.cabiatl.com/CABI/directions/)
  • Instructors: Dr. Chris Rorden and Dr Paul Corballis
  • Assessment: Written essay and presentation to class (<10,000 words; 70%). data analysis report (30%).
  • Essay description: Students will write an essay that describes the merits, limitations and potential of a current or potential technique used to infer brain function. Essays should extend beyond the information in the course. Examples include: ERP vs fMRI, MEG, functional connectivity, Independent Component Analysis, Adaptation Designs. Data analysis report: Students will write a report descibing how they analyzed MRI data using two methods. They can use data collected during the course. Findings of the two techniques should be compared and contrasted, and include possible explanations for differential results. Examples include SPM vs SnPM, With vs Without global scaling, with or without physiological correction, different hemodynamic response functions. Each student should conduct unique analyses: this is not a group project!
    Textbook: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging by Huettel, Song, and McCarthy

  • Course Description: Functional magnetic resonance imaging is a recent and powerful tool for inferring brain function. This technique identifies brain regions that are activated by different tasks – for example we can find the brain regions that activate when someone sees a familiar face. This course is designed to give students an understanding of the potential and limitations of this technique, and be able to critically evaluate the inferences that can be drawn from fMRI. The course describes all stages of an fMRI study – from the design of the behavioral task (e.g. asking the participant to view faces), to the image processing (e.g. correcting images for head movements that occurred during scanning), through to statistical analysis (identifying brain regions that are activated by a task).

Schedule

  • Jan 10, 2011: Overview.
  • Jan 17, 2011: No class. Martin Luther King Jr Day
  • Jan 24, 2011: MRI physics: Image Acquisition.
  • Jan 31, 2011: MRI physics: Image Contrast.
  • Feb 7, 2011: fMRI Paradigm Design.
  • Feb 14, 2011: Statistics and Thresholding.
  • Feb 21, 2010: Spatial Processing I: Spatial Registration
  • Feb 28, 2011: Note: class today, despite being GSU Spring break. Spatial Processing Continued II
  • Mar 7, 2011: Temporal Processing
  • Mar 14, 2010: FSL and SPM. Hands on demonstrations – Dr Kate Pirog Revill
  • Mar 21, 2011: No Class. GT Spring break
  • Mar 28, 2011: Detecting subtle changes in brain structure: Voxel Based Morphometry and Diffusion Tensor Imaging.
  • Apr 4, 2011: Lesion symptom mapping
  • Apr 11, 2011: Electrophysiology: Event Related Potentials (Paul Corballis).
  • Apr 18, 2011: Brain stimulation (Chip Epstein)
  • Apr 21, 2009: Student presentations: Resting state analysis, effective and functional connectivity, independent components analysis, neural current MRI?