Introduction to Functional Neuroimaging

The human mind is one of the most fascinating subjects to study. Much of the neural processing happens inside the human brain, which is one of the most intriguing and complex organs in the human body. Recent developments in the brain imaging technologies allow us to see what is happening in the human brain while it is in action.  See some articles below on Human mind and brain:

· Introduction to the human brain at the New Scientist

· Discovery channel article on five ways to study the brain

· The Kavli Foundation page on “The Neuroscience of Decision Making”

· Wikipedia page on the Neuroscience of free will

One technology to study the human brain in action is functional MRI or fMRI. Using fMRI it is possible to image the brain and peek into what is happening inside it.

Rendered picture of a brain		Brain areas	Flow of sensory signals to brain through neurons

Scientists have conventionally used very simple methods to analyse functional neuroimaging data. Now the community is examining more sophisticated methods (e.g., using machine learning) to analyse the data and draw significant meaningful conclusions. Some examples are listed below:

· Can you catch a lie using fMRI? For an introductory article see the following.  

· Mirror Neurons and Why We Love Cinema… article at Huffington post.

· Filmmaking Isn't Brain Surgery... Or Is It?

· Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind also see Tom Mitchell’s research on thought prediction at this link.

We are developing novel tools using machine learning techniques to gather scientific insights from fMRI data. See this link for some of our papers in this area.  Interested? Third year, fourth year, dual degree and M.Tech. students should consider attending this course.  If you would like to do a mini-project on an independent study, please send an email to me.