WEEKEND EDUCATIONAL COURSE
Advanced fMRI Techniques & Functional Connectivity Assessment
ORGANIZERS: Peter A. Bandettini, Ph.D. & Karla L. Miller, Ph.D.
 
SKILL LEVEL: Advanced
Sunday, 8 May 2011
OVERVIEW
This one-day advanced course will cover a range of recent advances in functional MRI, including both technical developments and recent experimental methods. Lectures will cover topics in engineering/physics, basic neuroscience and clinical neurology. Principal topics covered will include:
 « Novel contrast mechanisms for measuring brain activity;
 « Novel contrast mechanisms for measuring brain activity;
 « Concepts and techniques for functional connectivity; and
 « Use of functional connectivity in basic and clinical neuroscience.
The goal is to provide scientists with a basic understanding of functional MRI with an overview of the most recent advances in fMRI methodology.
 
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course participants should be able to:
« Describe the shortcomings of conventional fMRI acquisition techniques and identify state-of-the-art methods for overcoming these issues;
 « Identify alternative contrast mechanisms for detecting brain activity using MRI;
 « Explain why fMRI signal changes can be difficult to interpret, and techniques that ameliorate interpretation confounds;
 « Describe the basic phenomena observed in functional connectivity fMRI experiments and the spatial and temporal characteristics of intrinsic synchronous fluctuations;
 « Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of available techniques for defining synchronous brain regions and using them to infer the structure of brain networks; and
 « Identify and describe several major findings that relate task-absent fMRI signal to clinical and basic neuroscience, and evidence that these signals reflect connectivity in the brain.
Click on to view the abstract pdf and click on to view the video presentation.
     
  Advanced fMRI Techniques: Acquisition  
08:00 Going 3D: Volumetric Acquisition Methods   David Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D.
08:20 Multi-Echo Acquisition   Benedikt A. Poser, Ph.D.
08:40 Parallel & Inverse Imaging Techniques   Fa-Hsuan Lin, Ph.D.
09:00 Prospective Correction of Motion & Artifacts   Maxim Zaitsev, Ph.D.
09:20 Translating High Field into High Resolution   Jonathan R. Polimeni, Ph.D.
09:40 Real Time fMRI   Stephen M. LaConte, Ph.D.
10:00 Break  
  10:00 - 10:15 Meet the Teachers  
     
  Advanced fMRI Techniques: Contrast  
10:30 Spin-Echo Techniques   Noam Harel, Ph.D.
10:50 Steady-State Free Precession Techniques   Jongho Lee, Ph.D.
11:10 Improving Interpretability: ASL & VASO   Manus J. Donahue, Ph.D.
11:30 Calibrated fMRI   - permission withheld Yihong Yang, Ph.D.
11:50 What Can MRS Tell Us about Brain Activity?   - permission withheld Wei Chen, Ph.D.
12:10 Can MRI Detect Neuronal Activity Directly?   Allen W. Song, Ph.D.
12:30 Break  
  12:30 - 12:45 Meet the Teachers  
     
  Functional Connectivity  
13:30 What is the State of the Field?   Michael D. Greicius, M.D., M.P.H.
14:00 Characteristics of Resting State Fluctuations   David A. Leopold, Ph.D.
14:30 Break  
  14:30 - 14:45 Meet the Teachers  
     
15:00 Seeds vs ICA: How to Analyze Data   Christian F. Beckmann, Ph.D.
15:20 Multi-Modal Fluctuations & Correlations   Helmut Laufs, M.D.
15:40 Nonstationarity of Resting State Signal   Catherine E. Chang, M.S.
16:00 Causality from fMRI? Yes!   Alard Roebroeck, Ph.D.
16:20 Causality from fMRI? No!   Olivier David, Ph.D.
16:40 Clinical & Neuroscience Applications   Jessica S. Damoiseaux, Ph.D.
17:00 Adjournment  
  17:00-17:15 Meet the Teachers