Syllabus, Spring 2020
Boston University
Meeting time: Tuesday & Thursday 9:30–10:45am
Location: 64 Cummington Mall (PSY) Rm B55
Joseph T. McGuire, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Office hours: Tuesday 12:30–1:30pm, Thursday 2:30–3:30pm, and by appointment.
Office location: 677 Beacon St Rm 212
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. If you can bring a laptop to class, please do. 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 cognitive 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 some important findings and standing questions in cognitive neuroscience, (2) to understand the tools available for addressing these questions, 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). During Thursday classes we will usually spend time on a data-oriented, hands-on exercise.
Each student will be part of a Blackboard discussion forum with a subgroup of the class. Your assignment each week is to post comments on the readings and to respond to some of your classmates’ comments. By Sunday night, please post a comment consisting of a brief paragraph (at least a few sentences) on each of the upcoming week’s readings (including the textbook reading, if applicable). For example, if there are three readings, your post should have three paragraphs. I want to know what caught your interest, what puzzled you, or what you would like to hear your classmates weigh in on. At 8am Monday I will open the forum so you can see each other’s posts. Between then and the start of class Tuesday, please post responses to at least TWO of your classmates’ comments.
Forum comments and responses will be graded based on the degree to which they reflect thoughtful and creative consideration of the topics covered in the readings. 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 class you will have some time to confer in person with your forum group and then share something about your discussion with the rest of the class.
For a subset of the readings (those that are primary empirical research papers), I will also ask you to complete a short questionnaire before class. The purpose of the questionnaire is to help guide your attention toward the most important details of the paper.
In many of our class meetings (typically on Thursdays) there will be an in-class exercise that involves interacting with data. I will ask you to hand in a worksheet based on the exercise at the end of class. You are not graded directly on the results you obtain, but you are expected to engage actively with the exercise. Working in groups of 2 or 3 is encouraged.
There will occasionally be a short closed-book quiz at the beginning of class on Thursdays. I will give you a lot of information beforehand about what to expect on the quiz.
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 2018 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 for a target paper) is due via email by the end of the day on Friday Mar. 6, and your commentary is due by the end of the day on Friday Mar. 20. Submit the commentary in PDF format BOTH via email and via a Blackboard assignment.
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 email by the end of the day on Friday Apr. 17. You will lead a 10-minute small-group discussion about your research proposal during class on Thursday Apr. 30. The paper is due by the end of the day on Monday May 4. Submit the paper in PDF format BOTH via email and via a Blackboard assignment.
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 these 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.
Introduction (no reading due).
Background, neuroanatomy, and signal processing.
Electroencephalography, electrocorticography, and local field potential.
MR signal generation, image formation, and BOLD contrast.
Tuesday has a Monday schedule and Thursday’s class is canceled.
fMRI preprocessing; mapping early visual responses.
Experimental design and mass-univariate inference.
Spring recess.
Brain networks and resting-state functional connectivity.
Meta-analysis and data aggregation.
Computational approaches to higher-level cognition.
Brain stimulation and diffusion-weighted imaging.
Multivariate pattern analysis.
Individual differences and prediction of future behavior.
Topics and readings TBA based on class interests. Ten-minute small-group presentations of research proposals.