Course
Description
This two-day course will provide an introduction to all aspects
of MRI of human brain function. The course starts with an overview
of regional functional specialization of the brain, and the way in which
cortical areas intercommunicate. This is followed by a discussion
of the metabolic and hemodynamic response of the brain to activation.
The pulse sequences used to map brain function are then introduced,
along with an overview of the artifacts that should be anticipated.
The second day of the course details the principles of fMRI paradigm
design, and introduces the statistical methods used to analyze the data.
After describing emerging (non-BOLD) method for assessing brain
function/communication, the course concludes with a series of talks
providing examples of fMRI applications
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Audience Description:
This course is aimed at neurologists, psychiatrists, radiologists,
neuroscientists, MR physicists, graduate students, post-docs and
non-specialist scientists/clinicians with an interest in fMRI. No
prior experience is needed.
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Educational
Objectives: |
Upon completion of this course,
participants should be able to
 Identify the principle areas of the brain used in
sensory perception, motor activity, language, and cognition;
Describe the way in which these cortical areas
inter-communicate, both at the electrical and chemical level;
Describe the associated hemodynamic responses of the
brain that accompany electrical and metabolic activity;
Define and compare the various MRI pulse sequences that
can be used to map human brain function;
Identify the sources of artifacts that are inherent in
many fMRI procedures and describe methods to minimize these artifacts;
Design a simple fMRI paradigm, and describe the
principles used in data analysis;
Explain the principles of perfusion-based fMRI and the
methods used to construct maps of white matter tracts;
Identify the areas of application of fMRI in neurology,
psychiatry and basic neuroscience |
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