fMRI: Biological Basis and Experiment Design Lecture 16: Final projects Experiment design Data simulation Data analysis 1 light year = 5,913,000,000,000 miles?

Basic assignment, final project (all projects need these components) Abstract (250 words) Background - experiment design and neuroscience question motivating the experiment (1 page, references) Methods (2 – 4 pages) –MR Methods section (resolution, TR, TE, protocol) –Prediction of neural activity –Prediction of BOLD response (noiseless model) –Simulated data (BOLD + noise - physiological and/or thermal) –ROI selection –GLM Results (1 – 3 pages) –Paragraph describing simulation output + 1 figure –Paragraph describing GLM results + 1 figure Discussion (1 - 2 pages) –3 things that might not be as expected if you ran the experiment

Building blocks, final project (weekly assignments, 2 nd half of semester) Abstract (250 words) Background - experiment design and neuroscience question motivating the experiment (1 page, references) Methods (2 – 4 pages) –MR Methods section (resolution, TR, TE, protocol) – WA 8 –Prediction of neural activity – WA7 –Prediction of BOLD response (noiseless model) – WA7 –Simulated data (BOLD + noise - physiological and/or thermal) – WA8 –ROI selection – WA10 –GLM – WA11 & WA12 Results (1 – 3 pages) –Paragraph describing simulation output + 1 figure – WA8 –Paragraph describing GLM results + 1 figure – WA11 & WA12 Discussion (1 - 2 pages) –3 things that might not be as expected if you ran the experiment

Final projects: group effort Self-organizing groups 1 – 4 people per group Group names submitted with experiment design, WA7 (Mar. 28) Goes without saying – share the work equally –Any group member should be able to answer questions about any part of the project

Group presentations May 2 and May 4: 3 – 4 presentations each day 10 min. presentation + 10 min. discussion –Sample format: 1 person presents design 1 person presents simulation 1 person presents analysis Grading criteria: –Individual's apparent contribution – 20% –Group preparation/coordination for presentation – 10% –Group project meets all requirements – 65% Background and design – 20%; Simulation – 20%; GLM – 20%; discussion – 5% –Superior product: 5%

Weekly assignment 7 Identify group, if you're working in a group –Each group member turns in a document; all group members names are listed Describe (2 – 3 sentences) experimental question –Can be collaborative effort Describe (4 – 6 sent. or bullet pts.) experimental design –Functional localizers? –Block or event-related designs? –How many different stimulus conditions? Simulate neural and BOLD activity in one voxel (similar to WA6) –Submit code and figure

Sample product: design and simulation (optional this week) Simulated neural activity for block design Simulated BOLD responses for block design

Sample project – V1 contextual modulation experiment 3 experimental conditions Functional localizer to select ROI Today: block design experiment

Stimulus presentation (block paradigm) … Experiment design: psychophysics predicts that neural response to targets will be lower in b) than c). or 18 s = AFC trials Each scan = 10 x 36s = 6 min. 9 scans per session (3 each condition) is about max.

Simulated "brain" (10 x 10 array of "voxels") Simulated block response, target alone Simulated block response, target + facilitative flankers Simulated block response, target + suppressive flankers