Background
The last decade has seen a rapid development of neuroimaging techniques, in particular functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). FMRI allows a detailed view inside the living human brain, and is a very popular and much discussed research tool. The implications of the fMRI techniques are many, ranging from basic science to clinical applications, from law to economics. The field of fMRI is inherently multidisciplinary covering basic physics, physiology, psychology, and computational principles.
About this course
This course will provide you hands-on experience in designing, acquiring and analyzing your own fMRI data-set. We will acquire the fMRI data on the 3T and 7T MRI scanners on site. Lectures provide you with a theoretical background about fMRI, whereas practical sessions teach you how to set-up experiments, acquire data, and how to work with popular tools and analysis packages.
Objectives
This course will provide you with the methodological knowledge to design, execute and analyze your own fMRI data. Specifically the objectives are to:
- understand the most prevalent fMRI methods in terms of acquisition, design and analysis.
- equip you with the basic skills how to design, acquire and analyze your fMRI study.
- familiarize you with recent preprocessing and analysis and developments.
- give you some intuition about when to choose a 3T or 7T design.
Target
This course targets starting PhD students, or post-docs, with no prior experience with fMRI, who want to learn how to set-up their own fMRI experiment. As the course covers different types of topics across the field of fMRI (e.g., cognitive questions, medical manipulations, or advanced designs) it is appropriate for researchers with a wide range of backgrounds.
Costs
Costs are €250,- for students or employees of Spinoza partners (AUMC-AMC, AUMC-VUmc, NHI, UvA and VU) and €500,- for others. Fees cover the course, lunch, and scanning hours. Participants can enroll for the social dinner on Tuesday night for an additional fee of €50,-.