This book was written with the goal of introducing researchers and students in a variety of research fields to the intersection of data science and neuroimaging. This book reflects our own experience of doing research at the intersection of data science and neuroimaging and it is based on our experience working with students and collaborators who come from a variety of backgrounds and have a variety of reasons for wanting to use data science approaches in their work. The tools and ideas that we chose to write about are all tools and ideas that we have used in some way in our own research. Many of them are tools that we use on a daily basis in our work. This was important to us for a few reasons: the first is that we want to teach people things that we ourselves find useful. Second, it allowed us to write the book with a focus on solving specific analysis tasks. For example, in many of the chapters you will see that we walk you through ideas while implementing them in code, and with data. We believe that this is a good way to learn about data analysis, because it provides a connecting thread from scientific questions through the data and its representation to implementing specific answers to these questions. Finally, we find these ideas compelling and fruitful. That’s why we were drawn to them in the first place. We hope that our enthusiasm about the ideas and tools described in this book will be infectious enough to convince the readers of their value.

This lecture covers visualizing extracellular neurotransmitter dynamics

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

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. 

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

This lecture consists of the second half of the introduction to signal transduction, here focusing on cell receptors and signalling cascades.

In this lesson, you will learn about GABAergic interneurons and local inhibition on the circuit level.

This lesson gives an in-depth introduction of ethics in the field of artificial intelligence, particularly in the context of its impact on humans and public interest. As the healthcare sector becomes increasingly affected by the implementation of ever stronger AI algorithms, this lecture covers key interests which must be protected going forward, including privacy, consent, human autonomy, inclusiveness, and equity. 

This lesson describes a definitional framework for fairness and health equity in the age of the algorithm. While acknowledging the impressive capability of machine learning to positively affect health equity, this talk outlines potential (and actual) pitfalls which come with such powerful tools, ultimately making the case for collaborative, interdisciplinary, and transparent science as a way to operationalize fairness in health equity. 

This lesson is the first part of a three-part series on the development of neuroinformatic infrastructure to ensure compliance with European data privacy standards and laws. 

This is the second of three lectures around current challenges and opportunities facing neuroinformatic infrastructure for handling sensitive data. 

This lesson contains the first part of the lecture Data Science and Reproducibility. You will learn about the development of data science and what the term currently encompasses, as well as how neuroscience and data science intersect. 

This lecture gives a tour of what neuroethics is and how it applies to neuroscience and neurotechnology, while also addressing justice concerns within both fields. 

This lecture presents selected theories of ethics as applied to questions raised by the Human Brain Project.

The HBP as an ICT flagship project crucially relies on ICT and will contribute important input into the development of new computing principles and artefacts. Individuals working on the HBP should therefore be aware of the long history of ethical issues discussed in computing. This lessson provides an overview of the most widely discussed ethical issues in computing and demonstrate that privacy and data protection are by no means the only issue worth worrying about. 

This lecture explores two questions regarding the ethics of robot development and use. Firstly, the increasingly urgent question of the ethical use of robots: are there particular applications of robots that should be proscribed, in eldercare, or surveillance, or combat? Secondly, the talk deals with the longer-term question of whether intelligent robots themselves could or should be ethical.

In this lesson, attendees will learn about the challenges involved in working with life scientists to enhance their capacity for understanding, and taking responsibility for, the social implications of their research.

This lecture considers some of the key social and ethical issues raised by the ‘big brain projects’ currently under way in Europe, the USA, China, Japan, and many other regions. 

This lecture aims to give an introduction and overview of the dual-use challenge as it applies to neuroscience today and will apply in coming decades.

What is ethics in biomedical research? In this case, ethics refers to how we think we can use animals in biomedical research and what we gain from the experimental setup of those investigations. We will talk about “a common set of values” and how 3R engagement can make a difference in experimental procedures, results, and scientific publications of the future.