Advanced fMRI

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Building on the course Neuroimaging, this course will examine advanced topics of fMRI methodology and applications. In the first week, students learn how knowledge about vascular effects may help to detect BOLD artefacts. In the second week, the principles of real-time fMRI will be presented. This is followed by an overview of fMRI neurofeedback studies and a discussion of its use as a new therapeutic tool. In addition, machine learning techniques for the real-time decoding of mental states and the application of these techniques in brain-computer interfaces will be discussed. In the third week, students examine advanced methods to establish correspondence between different brains. The course also discusses the importance of brain normalisation for random-effects statistical analysis, creation of probabilistic atlases and meta- analyses. In the fourth week, the possibilities and challenges of ultra- high field fMRI will be discussed focusing on studies with sub- millimeter spatial resolution aiming to unravel the columnar and laminar organization of the cortex.