McGill University, Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery

 

Neuroscience 531-605A: Current Topics in Neuroscience

"Principles of Functional Neuroimaging"

 

Winter Term, 1998

 

Course Syllabus

 

Time and Place: Mondays 16:00 to 17:30, Room 282 at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

 

Instructor: Dr. Tomáš Paus

Office: Montreal Neurological Institute

3801 University St., Room 323

Telephone: 398-8481; e-mail: tomas@bic.mni.mcgill.ca

Office Hours: After class or by appointment

 

 

Synopsis

This 12-week course will provide an overview of different approaches to the functional mapping of the human brain. The principles and the use of the following techniques will be considered: positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Advantages and disadvantages of these techniques and their combinations will be discussed. At the end of the course, students should be able to read critically papers published in the field and to design simple experiments addressing questions about brain/behavior relationships.

 

 

Organization of the course

This is an advanced course that assumes students have a thorough knowledge of basic topics at the level covered in 531-631B (Principles of Neuroscience II) and/or in 311A (Human behavior and the brain). We will focus on the use of PET, fMRI and TMS for studying brain/behavior relationships in healthy human subjects. The opening four units will consist of lectures explaining the basics of each technique, i.e. data acquisition, analysis, and experimental design. The fifth unit will be a seminar in which relative advantages and disadvantages of the three techniques will be discussed. During this unit, we will visit the PET and MRI laboratories in the MNI. In the sixth unit, we will start with a lecture on frameless stereotaxy and on approaches that combine different techniques in a single experiment. We will then talk about advantages and disadvantages of this approach and visit my laboratory, which specializes on the combination of TMS with other brain-mapping techniques.

The second half of the course (six units) will consist of seminars in which each student will be asked to discuss a previously assigned PET/fMRI/TMS paper and to present a design of his/her own functional-imaging experiment.

Evaluation and Grading

Evaluation will be carried out by means of a midterm exam and a written research proposal. The midterm exam will be a short (one page, single-spaced) essay on one of the techniques covered in the course, describing the technique’s principles and its use for studying the human brain and cognition. The proposal will consist of an original idea for a functional-imaging experiment that will have been presented by the student in the second half of the course. The proposal will be due on the last day of the class, should be written in the format of a submission for approval by an ethics committee (http://www.mcgill.ca/mni/ethics.html) and should include a consent form.

 

The grade breakdown will be as follows:

Midterm: 25%

Proposal: 75%

 

 

Tentative Lecture and Reading Schedule

 

September 14. Introduction to the course.

 

September 21 & 28. Lectures: Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

 

Paus T. Blood-flow activation PET: Principles, acquisition, post-processing, experimental design and statistics (Lecture Notes).

 

Townsend DW and Isoardi RA. Basic principles of PET data acquisition relevant to brain mapping experiments. Presented at the Brain Mapping Course, Fourth International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, June 7-12, 1998, Montreal, Canada.

 

Watson JGD, Myers R, Frackowiak RSJ, Hajnal JV, Woods RP, Mazziotta JC, Shipp S, Zeki S. Area V5 of the human brain: Evidence from a combined study using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebral Cortex 3:79-94, 1993.

 

Paus T, Perry D, Zatorre R, Worsley KJ, Evans AC. Modulation of cerebral blood-flow in the human auditory cortex during speech: role of motor-to-sensory discharges. European Journal of Neuroscience, 8:2236-2246, 1996.

 

Paus T. Location and function of the human frontal eye-field: A selective review. Neuropsychologia 34:475-483, 1996.

 

October 5. Lectures: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

 

Savoy RL. FMRI Basics. Presented at the Brain Mapping Course, Fourth International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, June 7-12, 1998, Montreal, Canada.

 

Belliveau JW, Kennedy DN, McKinstry RC, Ruchbinder RR, Weisskoff RM, Cohen MS, Vevea JM, Brady TJ, Rosen BR. Functional mapping of the human visual cortex by magnetic resonance imaging. Science 254:716-719, 1991.

 

Wagner AD, Schacter DL, Rotte M, Koutstaal W, Maril A, Dale AM, Rosen BR, Buckner RL. Building memories: Remembering and forgetting of verbal experiences as predicted by brain activity. Science 281:1188-1191, 1998.

 

October 12. Lectures: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

 

Jalinous R. Guide to Magnetic Stimulation. Jali Medical Inc. Newton, MA, 1998.

 

Maccabee PJ, Amassian VE, Cracco RQ, Cracco JB, Eberle L, Rudell A. Stimulation of the human nervous system using the magnetic coil. J. Clin. Neurophysiol. 8:38-55, 1991.

 

Walsh V and Cowey A. Magnetic stimulation studies of visual cognition. Trends in Cognitive Science 2:103-110, 1998.

 

Hamdy S and Rothwell JC. Gut feelings about recovery after stroke: the organization and reorganization of human swallowing motor cortex. Trends in Neurosciences 21:278-282, 1998.

 

Wassermann EM. Risk and safety of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: report and suggested guidelines from the International Workshop on the Safety of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, June 5-7, 1996. EEG Clin. Neurophysiol. 108:1-16, 1998.

 

October 19. Seminar: Advantages and disadvantages of PET, fMRI and TMS for studying brain/behavior relationships. Visit to the PET and MRI Labs.

 

October 26. Lectures: Combining PET, fMRI, EEG and TMS with frameless stereotaxy. Visit to the TMS lab.

 

Paus T. Imaging the brain before, during and after transcranial magnetic stimulation. Neuropsychologia, 1998 (in press).

 

Singh KD, Hamdy S, Aziz Q, Thompson DG. Topographic mapping of trans-cranial magnetic stimulation data on surface rendered MR images of the brain. EEG Clin. Neurophysiol. 105:345-351, 1997.

 

Bastings EP, Gage HD, Greenberg JP, Hammond G, Hernandez L, Santago P, Hamilton CA, Moody DM, Singh KD, Ricci PE, Pons TP, Good DC. NeuroReport 9:1941-1946, 1998.

 

Paus T, Jech R, Thompson CJ, Comeau R, Peters T, Evans A. Transcranial magnetic stimulation during positron emission tomography: a new method for studying connectivity of the human cerebral cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 17:3178-3184, 1997.

 

Ilmoniemi RJ, Virtanen J, Ruohonen J, Karhu J, Aronen HJ, Näätänen R, Katila T. Neuronal responses to magnetic stimulation reveal cortical reactivity and connectivity. NeuroReport 8:3537-3540, 1997.

 

November 2. Seminar.

November 9. No class (Soc. Neurosci. Meeting)

 

November 16, 23 & 30, December 7 & 14. Seminars.