Advances in Neuroscience 23-KODU-AIN

The lectures will cover a wide range of recent neuroscience review and research papers on visual, sensorimotor, and more general task positive, and task negative processing in the human brain. A rich array of research questions will be addressed, starting from how the brain allows us to see and "feel" (haptically) objects, their functions, letters/words and their meaning, how and why people fail in these tasks, and what insights contemporary neuroscientists can bring to support their neurorehabilitation.

SYLLABUS:
Week 1: Introduction, and overview of course objectives
Week 2: Methods (1) - Resting state connectivity in neurobiology and medicine
Week 3: Methods (2) - Diffusion-weighted tractography and disconnection mapping
Week 4: Brain maps and multi-modal parcellations of the cerebral cortex
Week 5: Visual vs. multimodal processing in the human brain
Week 6: The somatosensory plasticity and compensation of action control
Week 7: Sensorimotor-independent development of hand and tool selectivity in the visual cortex
Week 8: Function/affordance and its processing in different brain pathways
Week 9: Neural bases of tool use and generalized motor programs
Week 10: The neural underpinnings of object perception and basic reading skills
Week 11: Origins of the specialization for letters and numbers in occipito-temporal cortex
Week 12: The language control networks, their intrinsic connectivity, and types of lateralization
Week 13: The origins of atypical language laterality and its relation to other brain functions
Week 14: Structural and functional brain asymmetries in human situs inversus totalis
Week 15: The neural underpinnings of sex addiction and/or sex differences

Module learning aims

The goals of the lecture series are the following: • to review the state-of-the-art in anatomical, functional, and network approaches to vision, haptics, the control of behavior, and language processing, • to study the latest and impactful research reports in each of these domains, • to understand the essentials of research design, data analyses, and interpretations of their outcomes in the area of functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and neurostimulation (TMS).

Information on where to find course materials

All the materials will be available in a dedicated folder on the MS TEAMS platform. Just in case, or if really necessary, some or all the materials will be made at: http://krolgreg.home.amu.edu.pl

Major

Cognitive Science (The third term of the M.Sc. program offered at the Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science)

Methods of teaching for learning outcomes achievement

The lectures will give some background, and will provide specific discussion of major findings from the selected/discussed papers.

Course module conducted remotely (e-learning)

While most of the lectures in each academic year are held on site (in a lecture hall), there is a possibility that, in a justified case, a lecture may be taught remotely (online).

Student workload (ECTS credits)

ECTS: 5 - It is estimated that around three hours of additional studying each week would be necessary to read the assigned papers, take relevant notes and prepare for the exam.

Cycle of studies

2nd cycle

Module type

compulsory

Year of studies (where relevant)

Year 2

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant) Knowledge of basic concepts in vision, somatosensation, perception, action, and language processing will be helpful in understanding of the discussed lecture material. Yet, there are no specific prerequisites because the lectures and recommended textbook chapters cover them all.

Course coordinators

Grzegorz Króliczak

Learning outcomes

Upon the completion of the lecture series, students will be re-acquainted with basic concepts from each of the reviewed domains, and familiarized with selected advanced models and approaches to studying visual, sensory/motor and language processing in the brain.

Assessment criteria

The final exam will cover the material from the studied papers / chapters, and the related slides.

The AIN exam consists of only one part, involving answers to 40-50 multiple-choice questions.

Example questions are given below:

(1) Connectome Workbench is a program implementing ____________ from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Illustrated in Picture X, this atlas contains ____________ bounded by ____________ cortical architecture, function, connectivity, and/or topography, in a precisely aligned group average of ____________ adults. An automated classifier can detect the presence of ____________ of these cortical areas in new subjects.
A) multi-modal cortical atlas … 210 areas per hemisphere … gradual changes in … 180 healthy young … … the majority
B) the most complex cortical atlas … 97 new and 83 previously reported areas … sharp changes in … 180 healthy middle-aged … the majority
C) the most complex cortical atlas … 83 new and 97 previously reported areas … gradual changes in … 210 healthy middle-aged … the vast majority
D) multi-modal cortical atlas … 180 areas per hemisphere … sharp changes in … 210 healthy young … the vast majority

(2) A study by van der Hurk et al (2017). PNAS, shows that in the visual-processing region, ventral-temporal cortex (VTC), visual experience is not critical for its fundamental organizational property, namely category selectivity. The results of their fMRI study – see Picture Y – reveal that in congenitally blind participants, face-, body-, scene-, and object-related natural sounds evoked responses which (as shown by surface-based multivoxel pattern analysis) indicate ____________.
A) robust discriminatory responses elicited by the four categories, and these patterns of activity in blind subjects could successfully predict the visual categories in sighted controls
B) weak discriminatory responses elicited by the four categories, but these patterns of activity in blind subjects could somehow predict the visual categories in sighted controls
C) little discriminatory responses elicited by the four categories, but these patterns of activity in blind subjects could partially predict the visual categories in sighted controls
D) no discriminatory responses elicited by the four categories, but these patterns of activity in blind subjects could nevertheless be found close to the visual categories in sighted controls

51% of correct answers are necessary to pass the exam, i.e., to get a grade of 3; > 60% = 3.5; > 70% = 4; > 80% = 4.5; and > 90% = 5

Practical placement

N.A.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 23-KODU-AIN in USOSweb