Human Functional Brain Imaging (7.5 credits)


Course number37
Year2020
TypeMethodcourse
Track-
Max participants15
Application deadline2020-01-01
LanguageSven
Course leaderAndreas Frick; Jonas Persson
DepartmentDepartment of Neuroscience
Visiting addressAkademiska hospital, entrance 10
Post addressBox 593, 751 24 Uppsala
Datesweek 9-18
LocationAkademiska hospital
Course length10 weeks part time, equivalent to 5 week fulltime
Course report 
Course plan 

 

Description

In recent years there has been a rapid development of new tools for investigating the human brain in vivo and brain-behavior relationships, and the physiological observations of the brain can supply answers to many important psychiatric, neurological, and psychological questions. The course will introduce students to the basic principles of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) as methods to study the normal and pathological brain and brain-behavior relationships in healthy and patients, as well as basic and more advanced methods of brain imaging data analyses. Both individual and group-level data analysis will be included. The design of experimental paradigms will also be covered.

Learning outcomes

After the course, the student will be able to:
• explain the basic principles underlying image acquisition with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET)
• explain the principles behind blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI)
• design an efficient fMRI experiment
• perform preprocessing, and individual and group level analyses on fMRI and PET data
• discuss advantages and pitfalls of using MRI and PET for studying the brain and brain-behavior relationships

Contents

The course involves a mixture of lectures, seminars, and hands-on data-analysis sessions.

Instructions

The student should be admitted to the PhD education. No prior knowledge of brain imaging methods is required.

Examination

To pass the course, the student shall
1. Design and implement an fMRI experiment
2. Analyze fMRI data, and present the work in a written and an oral presentation
3. Partake actively in seminars and introduce the topic of one seminar. Absence from a seminar is compensated through a written assignment.

Literature

Huettel, S. A., Song, A. W., & McCarthy, G. (2014). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (Third edition). Sunderland, Massachusetts, U.S.A: Sinauer Associates, Inc., Publishers.

Poldrack, R. A., Mumford, J. A., & Nichols, T. E. (2011). Handbook of functional MRI data analysis. Cambridge New York Melbourne Madrid: Cambridge University Press.

Additional articles.

Teaching staff

Andreas Frick
Jonas Persson

Additional experts in the field.

More information

andreas.frick@neuro.uu.se
jonas.persson@neuro.uu.se

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