| 08:00 | | Basic BOLD Physiology João Jorge Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: fMRI, Neuro: Brain function, Neuro: Cerebrovascular Since its demonstration in the early 90's, the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast has proved to be a revolutionary tool to probe brain function non-invasively. But what lies under the hood? Rather than a direct measure of neuronal activity (or any single physiological parameter), BOLD signals reflect a complex interplay of neuronal, vascular and metabolic factors. In this talk, we will introduce the basic physiology and physics that underlie the BOLD contrast, and which govern the spatial and temporal properties of the signal we measure with fMRI. |
| 08:30 | | Data Acquisition for fMRI SoHyun Han Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: fMRI This lecture will describe the data acquisition for functional MRI focusing on 2D echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence. Sequence parameters (TE, TR, echo spacing, voxel size, acceleration factors, etc.) will be introduced. Parallel imaging (SENSE, GRAPPA, SMS) methods and typical EPI related artifacts (ghosting, geometric distortions, signal loss) will also be discussed. |
| 09:00 | | Preprocessing in fMRI Sungho Tak Keywords: Neuro: Brain In this course, we describe an overview of basic pre-processing operations for fMRI data that are typically performed before statistical analysis of regional activation and connectivity. We then present the details of methods used for motion correction, slice timing correction, segmentation, spatial normalization, and physiological noise correction. Additionally, we provide recent advances in the preprocessing methods and discuss future directions. The target audience includes fMRI researchers interested in learning about basic methods and software for preprocessing in humans. |
| 09:30 | | Task-Based fMRI Luca Vizioli |
| 10:00 | | Break & Meet the Teachers |
| 10:30 | | Resting-State Basics: why asking your subjects to do nothing can open a window into brain function, cerebral physiology, and data nuisance. Stefano Moia Keywords: Neuro: Brain function, Neuro: Brain connectivity, Neuro: Cerebrovascular Resting state (RS) functional MRI is a versatile data acquisition paradigm that can be adopted to obtain meaningful information about brain function, cerebral physiology, and data nuisance. This talk will introduce basics concepts of RS fMRI, starting by exploring the most common data-driven methods to analyse RS data, as well as the metrics used to assess its signal properties, discussing possible interpretations of the results. It will then address perks and pitfalls of RS, as well as the latest developments in the field of functional MRI aiming at overcoming the limitations of RS. |
| 11:00 | | Interpretation of BOLD fMRI Natalia Petridou Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: fMRI, Neuro: Brain function, Neuro: Cerebrovascular Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI is the most-widely used technique to measure brain function non-invasively. BOLD however is a surrogate measure of brain function as the signals reflect local changes in hemodynamics. Understanding the relationship between neuronal activity and hemodynamics is therefore critical in interpreting BOLD data. This lecture will discuss neuronal and vascular contributions to BOLD in terms of spatial and temporal specificity, and address factors that affect the variability and linearity of the BOLD response. It will also discuss the importance of signal quality and data analysis methods, and the role of models, in interpreting BOLD fMRI data. |
| 11:30 | | Application of fMRI in Psychiatric Disorders Qiyong Gong Keywords: Neuro: Brain This lecture will provide an overview of the use of fMRI in psychiatric disorders, while also introducing the application of other psychoradiology modalities. |