Syllabus, Fall 2020
Boston University
Version date: Sep 7, 2020
Meeting time: Tuesday & Thursday 9:30–10:45am (U.S. Eastern Time)
Location: PSY 150 (64 Cummington Mall) and via Zoom (see Blackboard for connection details)
Joseph T. McGuire, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Office hours: via Zoom, Friday 10am–12pm or by appointment (see Blackboard)
Email: jtmcg@bu.edu
We will use the following textbook:
Principles of fMRI, by Martin A. Lindquist and Tor D. Wager, published by Leanpub. You can buy the book in PDF format at this URL.
Other readings will be drawn from the primary literature and distributed via Blackboard.
The following textbook is OPTIONAL supplemental reading:
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 3rd Edition, by Scott A. Huettel, Allen W. Song, & Gregory McCarthy, published by Sinauer Associates.
For in-class exercises and demonstrations we will use the Connectome Workbench software package. We will talk about this in more detail in the first few class meetings. Information about installing Connectome Workbench is at this URL.
We will also use R and RStudio. You can download RStudio at this URL.
This course is about cognitive neuroscience: how the human brain implements the information-processing functions of the human mind. We will approach this topic with an emphasis on research methods. How do we know what we know? What can we measure? What are the pitfalls and controversies in making inferences from complex human neuroscience data sets?
The goals of the course are for you (1) to become familiar with important findings and big unknowns in cognitive neuroscience, (2) to understand the tools available for addressing those unknowns, and (3) to hone your general skills for reading scientific papers and drawing conclusions from quantitative data.
Tuesday classes will generally begin with small-group discussions of the week’s readings. You are expected to complete the reading several days in advance and participate in an online discussion forum before class (see details below). Thursday classes will often start with a short quiz, and then we will usually spend time on a data-oriented, hands-on exercise.
We will follow BU’s “Learn from Anywhere” model this semester. We will establish a system of rotating attendance by dividing the class into “teams” and having each team attend in person for one week at a time. (More detail about the attendance rotation system is in the weekly schedule below.) You may attend any/all classes remotely if you prefer, but you may only attend in person when it’s your team’s week. Everyone must wear a mask while in the classroom and must be in full compliance with BU’s public health protocols (including COVID-19 testing, symptom reporting, etc).
Classes will be broadcast via a Zoom link available on Blackboard. Remote students are encouraged to participate synchronously at our scheduled class time. I understand there may be circumstances that make synchronous attendance impossible in some cases. We can accommodate asynchronous participation, but please discuss it with me.
Lecture-style portions of the class will be recorded, but group discussions will not be. Recordings and slides will be made available to enrolled students via Blackboard.
Students attending in person should bring a laptop and headphones to class in order to engage in small-group discussions with classmates who are attending remotely, and in order to participate in data exercises and quizzes. Let me know if that’s a burden.
Everything in this section is subject to change as pandemic conditions evolve.
Most weeks there will be three assigned readings. Usually at least one will be an overview/review paper and at least one will be an empirical research article. Sometimes one of the readings will be a textbook section. Readings will be posted on Blackboard together with a short introductory video and a set of discussion prompts.
Each student will be part of a Blackboard discussion forum with a subgroup of the class. Your assignment each week is to watch the video, read the readings, post comments in response to the discussion prompts, and then post replies to some of your classmates’ comments. Your initial post on the upcoming week’s readings is due by Sunday night. At 8am Monday (Boston time) I will open the forum so you can see each other’s posts. Between then and the start of class Tuesday, please post replies to at least two of your classmates’ comments.
The length of your initial post should be approximately one paragraph per reading (three paragraphs total in a typical week). Forum comments will be graded based on the degree to which they are thoughtful, creative, and responsive to the discussion prompts. The lowest two grades will be dropped (so, if you like, you can skip the online discussion for two weeks). Late posts can receive partial credit as long as they are submitted before class.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s class, you will have some time to talk with your group in a Zoom breakout room. One member of each group will be designated the discussion leader each week. The discussion leader’s job is to guide the small-group discussion and report out highlights of the discussion to the whole class afterward.
We will often have a short, online, open-notes quiz at the beginning of class on Thursdays. I will give you a lot of information beforehand about what to expect on each quiz.
In many of our Thursday classes we’ll then do an in-class exercise that involves interacting with data. I will ask you to complete a worksheet as you work through the exercise. You are not graded directly on the results you obtain, but you are expected to engage actively with the exercise. Working in groups is encouraged, and we will set up Zoom breakout groups for that purpose.
Many academic journals publish commentaries on new scientific papers, written by researchers who were not involved in the work. These are typically a few pages long and accomplish three things: (1) summarize the paper, (2) explain its importance in the the context of the field, and (3) gently point out some of its potential limitations.
Your assignment is to write an approximately 1000-word “News & Views” style commentary on a published research article in human cognitive neuroscience from 2019 or later. You are responsible for picking a target article that we have not read in class and that did not have an associated commentary when it was published.
Your topic (your choice of a target paper) is due via Blackboard by the end of the day on Friday Oct. 9, and your commentary is due via Blackboard by the end of the day on Friday Oct. 23.
Your assigment by the end of the semester is to develop a proposal for a new research project in some area of human cognitive neuroscience, and describe the proposed project in a concise paper. You should describe the background and motivation for your proposal, your hypothesis, the methods you would use, and the possible outcomes. I encourage you to start thinking about this early in the semester, and I am more than happy to discuss it with you!
The format for the paper is modeled after the Research Plan for an NSF fellowship application (2 pages long, single-spaced). More details about the format will be provided later in the semester.
Your topic is due via Blackboard by the end of the day on Friday Nov. 13. You will lead a 10-minute small-group discussion about your research proposal during class on Tuesday Dec. 8. The paper is due via Blackboard by the end of the day on Tuesday Dec. 15.
You are responsible for adhering to the applicable Academic Conduct Code:
For undergraduate students, the Boston University Academic Conduct Code.
For graduate students, the GRS Academic and Professional Conduct Code.
Please make sure you are familiar with those documents, as they describe how academic misconduct is defined and how any instances of possible misconduct will be handled.
Specific topics and readings are subject to change; refer to Blackboard for the latest information.
Students attending in person will be assigned to “Team Sulcus” or “Team Gyrus” and one team will be able to attend in person each week as noted below.
Fully remote
Course introduction.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Neuroanatomy and localization of function.
Team Gyrus attends in person
Healthy aging, neurodegenerative disease, and focal brain injury.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Electroencephalography, electrocorticography, and local field potential.
Team Gyrus attends in person
MR signal generation, image formation, and BOLD contrast.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Mapping early visual responses.
Fully remote
Processing and analyzing functional MRI data.
Team Gyrus attends in person
Experimental design and inference.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Brain networks and functional connectivity.
Team Gyrus attends in person
Meta-analysis and data aggregation.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Pattern analysis and decoding.
Team Gyrus attends in person
Brain stimulation.
Plans for class TBA.
Team Sulcus attends in person
Individual differences and prediction of future behavior.
Team Gyrus attends in person
Course wrap-up and ten-minute small-group presentations of research proposals.