Course Information

37
7.5 ECTS
2026-06-15
Other Courses
Swedish and English
15
2026
8 Neuroscience

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Human Functional Brain Imaging (7.5 credits)

Course Leader

Andreas Frick; Jonas Persson

Department

Department of medical sciences

Weeks

week 40-49

Location

Akademiska hospital

Duration

10 weeks part time, equivalent to 5 week fulltime

Description

In recent years, there has been a rapid development of new tools for investigating the human brain in vivo and brain-behavior relationships. Physiological observations of the brain can now provide answers to many important psychiatric, neurological, and psychological questions. This course introduces students to the basic principles of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) as methods to study both the healthy and pathological brain. We will cover experimental design as well as basic and advanced methods for brain imaging data analysis at both the individual and group level.

Learning Outcomes

After the course, the student will be able to:
• explain the basic principles underlying image acquisition with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET)
• explain the principles behind blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI)
• design an efficient fMRI experiment
• perform preprocessing, and individual and group level analyses on fMRI and PET data
• discuss advantages and pitfalls of using MRI and PET for studying the brain and brain-behavior relationships

Content

The course involves a mixture of lectures, seminars, and hands-on data-analysis sessions.

Instructions

The student should be admitted to the PhD education. No prior knowledge of brain imaging methods is required.

Examination

To pass the course, the student shall
1. Design and implement an fMRI experiment
2. Analyze fMRI data, and present the work in a written and an oral presentation
3. Partake actively in seminars and introduce the topic of one seminar. Absence from a seminar is compensated through a written assignment.

Literature

Huettel, S. A., Song, A. W., & McCarthy, G. (2014). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (Third edition). Sunderland, Massachusetts, U.S.A: Sinauer Associates, Inc., Publishers.

Poldrack, R. A., Mumford, J. A., & Nichols, T. E. (2011). Handbook of functional MRI data analysis. Cambridge New York Melbourne Madrid: Cambridge University Press.

Additional articles.

Teachers

Andreas Frick
Jonas Persson

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