The goal of the course is to cover the major technical topics and methodological issues in the field of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain research.
With this background, students will be equipped with better tools to design and implement their own fMRI experiments, analyze fMRI data, and importantly appreciate the advantages and limitations of fMRI research.
Lab assignments will mainly involve analyzing fMRI data (OpenNeuro) using FSL package.
Specifically, course material will cover the following (and perhaps more if time allows):
1. Introduction and overview of MRI basics, the MRI scanner, and fMRI.
2. Experimental designs (block and event related designs, fMRI adaptation, naturalistic stimuli, resting state)
3. fMRI data analyses: single- and multi-subject (GLM, correlations, functional connectivity, resting state, uni- vs. multi-variate analyses) and statistical methods.
4. Current topic in fMRI (e.g. voodoo/spurious correlations/circular inference; functional localizers debate).
5. Human Connectome Project - analysis, visualization, and sharing tools
Lab practice will cover the following subjects:
1. Introduction to Psychtoolbox - preparing your experiment.
2. Analyzing fMRI data (OpenNeuro) using FSL package and Matlab