Skip to main content

This lesson is a general overview of overarching concepts in neuroinformatics research, with a particular focus on clinical approaches to defining, measuring, studying, diagnosing, and treating various brain disorders. Also described are the complex, multi-level nature of brain disorders and the data associated with them, from genes and individual cells up to cortical microcircuits and whole-brain network dynamics. Given the heterogeneity of brain disorders and their underlying mechanisms, this lesson lays out a case for multiscale neuroscience data integration.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:09:33
Speaker: : Sean Hill

In this tutorial on simulating whole-brain activity using Python, participants can follow along using corresponding code and repositories, learning the basics of neural oscillatory dynamics, evoked responses and EEG signals, ultimately leading to the design of a network model of whole-brain anatomical connectivity. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:16:10
Speaker: : John Griffiths

This lesson breaks down the principles of Bayesian inference and how it relates to cognitive processes and functions like learning and perception. It is then explained how cognitive models can be built using Bayesian statistics in order to investigate how our brains interface with their environment. 

This lesson corresponds to slides 1-64 in the PDF below. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:28:14

Whereas the previous two lessons described the biophysical and signalling properties of individual neurons, this lesson describes properties of those units when part of larger networks. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 6:00
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

This lesson goes over some examples of how machine learners and computational neuroscientists go about designing and building neural network models inspired by biological brain systems. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 12:52
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

This lecture and tutorial focuses on measuring human functional brain networks, as well as how to account for inherent variability within those networks. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 50:44
Speaker: : Caterina Gratton

This lesson gives an overview of the Brainstorm package for analyzing extracellular electrophysiology, including preprocessing, spike sorting, trial alignment, and spectrotemporal decomposition.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 47:47

This lesson provides an overview of the CaImAn package, as well as a demonstration of usage with NWB.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 44:37

This lesson gives an overview of the SpikeInterface package, including demonstration of data loading, preprocessing, spike sorting, and comparison of spike sorters.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:10:28
Speaker: : Alessio Buccino

In this lesson, users will learn about the NWBWidgets package, including coverage of different data types, and information for building custom widgets within this framework.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 47:15
Speaker: : Ben Dichter

This is a continuation of the talk on the cellular mechanisms of neuronal communication, this time at the level of brain microcircuits and associated global signals like those measureable by electroencephalography (EEG). This lecture also discusses EEG biomarkers in mental health disorders, and how those cortical signatures may be simulated digitally.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:11:04
Speaker: : Etay Hay

This lecture covers the rationale for developing the DAQCORD, a framework for the design, documentation, and reporting of data curation methods in order to advance the scientific rigour, reproducibility, and analysis of data.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 17:08
Speaker: : Ari Ercole

The Medical Informatics Platform (MIP) is a platform providing federated analytics for diagnosis and research in clinical neuroscience research. The federated analytics is possible thanks to a distributed engine that executes computations and transfers information between the members of the federation (hospital nodes). In this talk the speaker will describe the process of designing and implementing new analytical tools, i.e. statistical and machine learning algorithms.  Mr. Sakellariou will further describe the environment in which these federated algorithms run, the challenges and the available tools, the principles that guide its design and the followed general methodology for each new algorithm. One of the most important challenges which are faced is to design these tools in a way that does not compromise the privacy of the clinical data involved. The speaker will show how to address the main questions when designing such algorithms: how to decompose and distribute the computations and what kind of information to exchange between nodes, in order to comply with the privacy constraint mentioned above. Finally, also the subject of validating these federated algorithms will be briefly touched.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 20:26
Speaker: : Jason Skellariou

This lesson goes over the basic mechanisms of neural synapses, the space between neurons where signals may be transmitted. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 7:03
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

This lesson describes spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), a biological process that adjusts the strength of connections between neurons in the brain, and how one can implement or mimic this process in a computational model. You will also find links for practical exercises at the bottom of this page. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 12:50
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

This lesson discusses a gripping neuroscientific question: why have neurons developed the discrete action potential, or spike, as a principle method of communication? 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 9:34
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

This tutorial demonstrates how to perform cell-type deconvolution in order to estimate how proportions of cell-types in the brain change in response to various conditions. While these techniques may be useful in addressing a wide range of scientific questions, this tutorial will focus on the cellular changes associated with major depression (MDD). 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:15:14
Speaker: : Keon Arbabi

This lesson explains the fundamental principles of neuronal communication, such as neuronal spiking, membrane potentials, and cellular excitability, and how these electrophysiological features of the brain may be modelled and simulated digitally. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:20:42
Speaker: : Etay Hay

This is an in-depth guide on EEG signals and their interaction within brain microcircuits. Participants are also shown techniques and software for simulating, analyzing, and visualizing these signals.

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:30:41
Speaker: : Frank Mazza

This lesson describes the principles underlying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), tractography, and parcellation. These tools and concepts are explained in a broader context of neural connectivity and mental health. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:47:22