Neuroscience 675 - Fall 2010

Functional Neuroimaging in Cognitive Disorders

The Application of Brain Mapping Methods to Clinical Neuroscience

Public Website:
http://www.brainmap.wisc.edu/neuro675F10.html

Protected Learn@UW Website:
https://learnuw.wisc.edu/

Fall 2010, 3 credits

Seminar Leader: Sterling C. Johnson, PhD
Email: scj@medicine.wisc.edu

TA: Aadhavi Sridharan
Email: asridharan@medicine.wisc.edu

LOCATION:
CSC G5/113 (see schedule for occasional changes)

TIME:
Tuesday 2:30 to 3:50 PM
Thursday 2:30 to 3:50 PM

FORMAT:
Faculty lecture followed by 20 minutes of discussion/student presentations on journal articles.

CONTEXT:
This seminar course is about the application of cutting edge brain imaging methods to understanding clinical disorders and brain function. Several clinical problems in neuroscience will be studied, such as the effect of disease (e.g. neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, brain injury, epilepsy), psychiatric disorders (e.g. anxiety or depression) or current mental or physical state (e.g. stress or pain) on brain function and structure.

APPROACH:
Brain mapping in clinical disorders requires a multidisciplinary approach. The faculty for this seminar represent multiple disciplines who each bring an important knowledge-base and perspective on clinical and/or methodological issues pertaining to the topic. Following the presentation, there will be a student-led discussion on a relevant paper.

REQUIRED MATERIAL:
(available at the UW Bookstore)

  1. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Heuttel, Song and McCarthy. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland MA. 2009.
  2. Learn@UW: The readings for the class, and when possible, the lecture slides will be available on learn@UW. Additionally, any updates to the syllabus or schedule will be posted there as well.

REQUIREMENTS:
Mid Term Exam (20%): The midterm will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions related to methodological concepts and issues from the first half of the course.

Student Presentation (16%):
Each student will select and present a paper to the class. A list of potential research papers will be provided. Students may select other papers with instructor approval.

Final Paper (50%):
This is an opportunity to integrate the knowledge you have gained in the course. Design a research protocol for a neuroimaging study in a clinical population. The paper should be roughly 20-30 double spaced pages in length and should include sections on the following:
A) Topic background, review of constructs, and summary of the literature leading to the proposed study;
B) Specific hypotheses that will be addressed by your study;
B) Methods describing group characteristics and inclusion and exclusion criteria;
C) Imaging acquisition procedures in detail and justification of why particular parameters were selected from all the possible reasonable choices;
D) Detailed description and justification of image processing and analytical procedures chosen to address your hypotheses;
E) Expected results; and
F) Discussion of Limitations and Alternative Approaches.

Attendance(14%):
Because the main feature of the class is the seminar lecture series from UW Faculty, your attendance at the seminar is essential to the success of the course. Be familiar with the readings for the day and be prepared to interact with the speakers. Half a point per attended session is given (for a maximum of 14 points for the 28 class sessions).

SCHEDULE:

Date Lecture Topic Faculty Lecturer Location
9/2/2010 Introduction to Functional Brain Mapping in Brain Disorders Sterling C. Johnson, PhD G5/113
9/7/2010 MRI Image Formation Beth Meyerand, PhD G5/113
9/9/2010 PET Image Formation and Applications Brad Christian, PhD G5/113
9/14/2010 Intro to fMRI Concepts S. Johnson, PhD G5/113
9/16/2010 Image and Data Analysis 1 John Ollinger, PhD E5/492
9/21/2010 AFNI software intro and fMRI analysis Rasmus Birn, PhD K6/120
9/23/2010 Analysis with AFNI and research applications Rasmus Birn, PhD G5/113
9/28/2010 Image and Data Analysis 2 John Ollinger, PhD G5/113
9/30/2010 Brain Connectivity Rasmus Birn, PhD G5/113
10/5/2010 Working memory measured with fMRI, TMS, EEG Brad Postle, PhD G5/113
10/7/2010 DTI and theory and applications Andy Alexander, PhD G5/113
10/12/2010 White matter imaging and demyelinating disease Aaron Field, MD/PhD G5/113
10/14/2010 Cognition, aging and brain white matter Barb Bendlin, PhD G5/113
10/19/2010 Alzheimer’s disease: mapping preclinical changes S. Johnson, PhD K6/120
10/21/2010 Machine learning approaches to brain mapping: AD classification Vikas Singh, PhD G5/152
10/26/2010 Cerebral blood flow with ASL Guofan Xu, MD/PhD G5/113
10/28/2010 The lesion method in human cognitive neuroscience Mike Koenigs, PhD G5/113
11/2/2010 Cognitive Mapping in the Brain Utilizing fMRI and Stroke Imaging Vivek Prabhakaran, MD/PhD G5/113
11/4/2010 Stroke and perfusion imaging Howard Rowley, MD G5/113
11/9/2010 Mapping dopamine loss in Parkinson’s disease Cathy Gallagher, MD G5/113
11/11/2010 Epilepsy Bruce Hermann, PhD G5/113
11/16/2010 -—- Cancelled Neuroscience -——— -—— K6/120
11/18/2010 Student paper presentations G5/152
11/23/2010 Pain Dane Cook, PhD G5/113
11/25/2010 -—- Thanksgiving -—- G5/113
11/30/2010 Neural correlates of olfactory perception Wen Li, PhD G5/113
12/2/2010 fMRI of swallowing and motor plasticity JoAnne Robbins, PhD G5/152
12/7/2010 Student paper presentations G5/113
12/9/2010 Stress hormones and emotional memory in depression Heather Abercrombie, PhD G5/113
12/14/2010 Anxiety and Depression Jack Nitschke, PhD G5/113