---
# System prepended metadata

title: Introduction to Neuroscience (INS) v2
tags: [Talk]

---

---
title: Introduction to Neuroscience (INS) v2
tags: Talk
description: View the slide with "Slide Mode".


---


# WEAR YOUR MASK

## Thank you! 



---

# Introduction to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

###### Will Strawson, ws231@sussex.ac.uk 

----


### By the end of this class you should...

###### - Understand the difference between structural and functional MRI

###### - Understand the biological basis of the fMRI signal 

###### - Understand the data structure of fMRI 

###### - Understand what 'activation blobs' do and don't represent 

###### - Have an appreciation for preprocessing fMRI data

###### - Be able to compare fMRI to other neuroimaging techniques 

---


# Magnetic Resonance Imaging 

![](https://i.imgur.com/BZBrbc9.jpg =500x)


----


![](https://i.imgur.com/yFGn2zh.png) 
##### Image of human finger from Mansfield and Maudsley (1977)  obtained at 0.35 Tesla in 23 minutes.


----


![](https://i.imgur.com/l8ORaWK.png)
##### First whole body image , obtained July, 1977. It required nearly 5 hours to produce.


----


![](https://i.imgur.com/s6wayRL.png)

#### T1 weighted structural MRI image, obtained ~2018. Took approximately 7 minutes to produce! 
##### CSF signal repressed 


---


# Structural MRI 

#### Structural images provide information about the anatomy of what's being imaged by showing differences between different kinds of tissues (Grey Matter vs White Matter vs CSF)

#### Structural MRI provides high spatial resolution (0.8mm x 0.8mm x 0.8mm) images. 


---


# Voxels 

![](https://i.imgur.com/qH5ykJi.png =400x)


----


## Over to you (Viewing a structural image)
1. Open FSLeyes 
2. File -> Add from file -> fsl_course_data/ExBox11/structural.nii.gz
3. Increase brightness + contrast 


----


![](https://i.imgur.com/qH5ykJi.png =150x)


##### _Voxels_: Volumetric Pixel - the basic unit of measurement. Each voxel has a coordinate in the volume

##### _Slice_: all voxels in 2D plane. 

##### _Volume_: The entire 3-D grid covering the space imaged in the MRI scanner. Volume is composed of voxels

##### _TR_: One volume scanned every TR - basic time measurement in MRI


---


# What about the 'f' in fMRI?

### We want to map _function_ to _structure_.

### But how do we quantify neuronal activation using non-invasive MRI? 


---


## BOLD fMRI!
### _BOLD_ = Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent 

#### We measure the level of blood oxygenation throughout different cortical regions, and infer neuronal activation from that. 

##### Based on the premise that increased blood oxygenation = increased neuronal activation. 


---


# Time
![](https://i.imgur.com/x506oIm.png)

### Each voxel has an associated time-series of BOLD activation.



---


![](https://i.imgur.com/qH5ykJi.png =200x)

![](https://i.imgur.com/jdPAXVB.png =400x)

###### We have measurment of BOLD for each voxel across time




----


## Over to you (viewing a function MRI image)
1. Delete any previous images 
2. File -> Add from file -> fsl_course_data/ExBox11/fmri.nii.gz
3. Expore volumes (movie view)
4. View time series' (View -> Time series)


---


# What do those blobs mean?

### BOLD -> Parameter Estimate -> Test-statistic -> p-value 

![](https://i.imgur.com/fvxRDZj.png)


----

## Over to you (Overlaying statistical map)
1. File -> Open from file -> fsl_course_data/ExBox11/fmri.feat/thresh_zstat5.nii
2. Change colour grading from grey 
3. Notice the scores on the bottom right 


---


# Preprocessing

### fMRI signal is _very_ noisy

### Many _preprocessing_ techniques are available to remove physiological and scanner noise e.g. temporal filtering ; Motion correction; spatial smoothing etc


---


## Coregistration 

#### Co-Registration (or simply registration) refers to the alignment and overlay of fMRI data from a single subject with that subject's own but separately acquired anatomic image.

## Normalization

#### Process that aligns and warps fMRI data into a generic anatomic template (e.g. Talairach and MNI atlases). Normalization is usually performed on data from multiple subjects. 



---


# Multiple Comparisons

### Question: with p-value = 0.05 for a single voxel and 100,000 voxels, how many false positives? 


----


### 5000 of the 100,000 total voxels in a study (100,000 x 0.05) would potentially appear falsely activated. 

### This issue is known in statistics as the multiple comparisons problem.


----


![](https://i.imgur.com/Ot99BsD.png =1000x)
###### (Craig Bennet et al)


----



## Bonferoni Correction 

### Bonferroni is super simple —just divide your original acceptance threshold (P≤0.05) by the number of tests you are analyzing. 

###### e.g. 0.05 / 100,000(voxels) = p < 0.000001

#### However, this will equal high false negative results,

##### Other methods: use 'False Discovery Rate (FDR)'; Cluster Correction. 


---


## Temporal and Spatial Resolution  

![](https://i.imgur.com/87TcqFc.png)


###### - In comparison to other methods, fMRI has very good spatial resolution (~3mm) but average temporal resolution (~3s). 
###### - One axis is missing from this diagram: Invasivness. 



---



## One Caveat...

#### The fMRI methods of analysis I've presented, and the language i've used, may implicitly assume a modular view of the brian.

###### e.g. Different cognitive processes require different computational solutions which are implemented in anatomically/functionally distinct regions that operate independently – that is, in a modular fashion - brain area _x_ is responsible for cognitive process _y_ 


----


#### This is a BIG assumption that is still up for debate.  

####  There is evidence that cognitive processes relying on highly distrubuted networks of coordinated activity, in specific frequency bands (see EEG/MEG evidence). 


----


#### What do you think? 


---


## Summary

###### -  Structural-MRI = hi-res, no time; functional-MRI = has time componant 

###### - Biological basis of fMRI = BOLD 

###### - Data structure composed of voxels; slices; volumes. (4 dimensional for fMRI) 

###### - 'blobs' represent statistical scores not 'activation' or even BOLD 

###### - fMRI data needs preprocessing 

###### - fMRI has good spatial resolution, but poor temporal resolution in comparison to other neuroimaging techniques (e.g. MEG )



---

#### A good, chilled out resource:

![](https://i.imgur.com/qtS5oSg.png =500x)


