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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

The state of the field regarding the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) is discussed. Current challenges and opportunities facing the research and clinical communities are outlined, including appropriate quantitative and qualitative analyses of the heterogeneity of biological, social, and psychiatric factors which may contribute to MDD.

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 1:29:28

This lesson continues with the second workshop on reproducible science, focusing on additional open source tools for researchers and data scientists, such as the R programming language for data science, as well as associated tools like RStudio and R Markdown. Additionally, users are introduced to Python and iPython notebooks, Google Colab, and are given hands-on tutorials on how to create a Binder environment, as well as various containers in Docker and Singularity.

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 1:16:04

This lesson contains both a lecture and a tutorial component. The lecture (0:00-20:03 of YouTube video) discusses both the need for intersectional approaches in healthcare as well as the impact of neglecting intersectionality in patient populations. The lecture is followed by a practical tutorial in both Python and R on how to assess intersectional bias in datasets. Links to relevant code and data are found below. 

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 52:26

This lesson delves into the opportunities and challenges of telepsychiatry. While novel digital approaches to clinical research and care have the potential to improve and accelerate patient outcomes, researchers and care providers must consider new population factors, such as digital disparity. 

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 1:20:28
Speaker: : Abhi Pratap

This lesson is an overview of transcriptomics, from fundamental concepts of the central dogma and RNA sequencing at the single-cell level, to how genetic expression underlies diversity in cell phenotypes. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 1:29:08

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

This lecture covers a lot of post-war developments in the science of the mind, focusing first on the cognitive revolution, and concluding with living machines.

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 2:24:35

This lesson delves into the the structure of one of the brain's most elemental computational units, the neuron, and how said structure influences computational neural network models. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 6:33
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

In this lesson you will learn how machine learners and neuroscientists construct abstract computational models based on various neurophysiological signalling properties. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 10:52
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

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

While the previous lesson in the Neuro4ML course dealt with the mechanisms involved in individual synapses, this lesson discusses how synapses and their neurons' firing patterns may change over time. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 4:48
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

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 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

 In this lesson, you will learn about some of the many methods to train spiking neural networks (SNNs) with either no attempt to use gradients, or only use gradients in a limited or constrained way. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 5:14
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

In this lesson, you will learn how to train spiking neural networks (SNNs) with a surrogate gradient method. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 11:23
Speaker: : Dan Goodman

As the previous lesson of this course described how researchers acquire neural data, this lesson will discuss how to go about interpreting and analysing the data. 

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 9:24
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

In this lesson, you will hear about some of the open issues in the field of neuroscience, as well as a discussion about whether neuroscience works, and how can we know?

Difficulty level: Intermediate
Duration: 6:54
Speaker: : Marcus Ghosh

This lecture focuses on how the immune system can target and attack the nervous system to produce autoimmune responses that may result in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis, and lupus cerebritis manifested by motor, sensory, and cognitive impairments. Despite the fact that the brain is an immune-privileged site, autoreactive lymphocytes producing proinflammatory cytokines can cause active brain inflammation, leading to myelin and axonal loss.

Difficulty level: Beginner
Duration: 37:36
Speaker: : Anat Achiron