Hi again,
As mentioned in the earlier email about the training session, MEG will
be undergoing planned maintenance in the near future. The dates are
Friday 29th September until Sunday 8th October. MEG will reopen for use
on Monday 9th October.
Another important announcement is that we now have a
bookings(a)ynic.york.ac.uk email address. This should now be used for
bookings instead of emailing Claire directly as it will allow us to
cover for her when she isn't around. We'll be updating the web site and
documentation to reflect this as soon as we can.
Cheers,
Mark
(on behalf of YNiC)
--
Mark Hymers
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hi all,
YNiC are pleased to announce our first formal all-day training session.
This will take place on Friday 29th September at YNiC and the subject
will be MEG Analysis using Beamforming. This will coincide with our
general release of the YNiC Beamforming tools which some users have been
beta-testing in the past few weeks.
The timetable is as follows:
=============================================================================
0900-0915 Coffee and brief welcome talk
0915-1000 Talk: Introduction to Beamforming
1000-1030 Demo: How to use Beamforming at YNiC (Demonstration data)
1030-1045 Coffee break
1045-1130 Workshop: Using the Beamformer
1130-1215 Talk: Common pitfalls in MEG data analysis
1215-1300 LUNCH: (Sandwich buffet will be provided)
1300-1345 Talk and discussion: Review of results on test data
1345-1430 Talk: Why is nothing working? How to troubleshoot
1430-1445 Coffee break
1445-1530 Talk: Virtual electrodes
1530-1630 Workshop: Using virtual electrodes and examining your own data
=============================================================================
To make sure that people get the most out of this training session,
there will be a limit of 25 participants. Due to this training session,
the YNiC Open Plan will be closed all day on the 29th to those not
attending the training session. MEG will be undergoing planned
maintenance that day and so will also be closed (a further announcement
about this will follow soon).
As this is the first YNiC training session, we will be providing lunch
for the course attendees to celebrate the first of what we hope will be
many such courses.
To register for this course please email training(a)ynic.york.ac.uk with
your name and email address. Registration will close when we have 25
people or on Friday 22nd September (although we expect places to fill up
quickly).
Finally, we will soon be running a poll on the YNiC website to find out
the best times to run future training courses. Again, we will make an
announcement about this soon.
Thanks,
Mark
(On behalf of everyone at YNiC)
--
Mark Hymers
York Neuroimaging Centre
Dear All,
Thanks to some work from Andre, it has now been determined that the
current structurals are fit for purpose. Although the scalp
identification is a little noisy, the fits to the scalp information
derived in MEG do not appear to be unduly compromised. So, structural
scans can be acquired for the use with MEG data.
Although Andre has checked the registration of the MRI and MEG scalp
information on a few data sets, it really would be helpful if all users
who acquire such data could visually inspect their registrations (the
docwiki has information on how this can be done). Please alert us to any
discrepant registrations and proceed with caution.
Sorry for the rapid turn around on this issue. I am loath to recommend
scanning when the images are clearly not of the quality that we have
previously obtained, but in this case I think we can proceed (with
caution). The change in the image quality will still be pursued with GE.
Happy scanning!
Tony
Dear All,
As some of you may be aware, the recent MRI upgrade has introduced an
undesirable effect on the acquisition of structural anatomy scans, which
are routinely used in MEG analysis. The problem is subtle, but the code
that automatically identifies the skull runs less smoothly on the recently
acquired data. GE have been informed. As of now, structured MRIs for the
use with MEG will not be acquired, unless there are some exceptional
circumstances. MEG data can be acquired, but participants will have to be
rescheduled for their structural MRIs.
Please note however, that self-contained MRI studies will not be affected
in the same way because they are not so critically dependent on
identification of the skull surface. Thus, acquisition of functional data
and structurals (for registration) can proceed.
On a more positive note, the MRI scanner is up and running today.
Tony
Researchers at the University of Durham are seeking healthy volunteers to
participate in neuroimaging experiments using functional magnetic resonance
imaging.
The experiments will be performed at the York Neuroimaging Center using a
3Tesla magnet.
We will start a new experiment in the next couple of weeks and participants
will be asked to discriminate visual objects on the basis of their
geometrical (shape) or surface (texture) features. Visual stimuli are
images of 3D objects, and behavioural responses will be collected via button
press. Typical sessions last for 1-2 hours, and involve lying still in the
scanner while brain images are recorded. For detailed information about the
experiment see attached file.
The experiment is part of a research project based at the University of
Durham. The experimenter is Dr. Cristiana Cavina-Pratesi and the main
investigators are Prof. D. Milner; Prof. C. Heywood and Prof. R. Kentridge.
If you are interested, read the information below and if you think to be
eligible for participating, please fell free to contact Dr. Cristiana
Cavina-Pratesi cristiana.cavina-pratesi(a)durham.ac.uk for further
information.
Your name will be entered in a database. You can decide to remove your name
from the database at any time and you are always free to decline when an
experimenter contacts you.
To be eligible to participate, you must:
a.. have no metal in your body (fillings are okay)
b.. not be claustrophobic
c.. be able to remain relatively still for periods of 5-8 minutes
d.. be in good health and have no history of neurological disorders (e.g.,
epileptic seizures, head injuries)
e.. be able to see without glasses (contacts are okay) at arms' length
(for vision experiments);
Thanks in advance for your attention
Cristiana Cavina-Pratesi
Dear all,
this may be of interest to you ...
> A Royal Society discussion meeting on "Mental Processes in the Human
Brain" has
> been organised by Jon Driver, Patrick Haggard and Tim Shallice from
the UCL
> Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, for Oct 16-17 2006, at the Royal
Society
> in London.
> The programme and flyer are available on:
> http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=2835
> This Royal Society meeting is free to attend, but on-line
pre-registration is
> *essential*. To register, please click on www.royalsoc.ac.uk/events
Then under the
> "Choose month to view" box, click on Oct 2006 from the drop-down
selection and
> then click "go". If you then click on the title of the event (Mental
Processes
> in the Human Brain) you will get the option to "Register for this
Event".Please
> note the overlap of dates with the rescheduled Society for Neurosciences
> meeting in the USA. Despite this unfortunate timetable clash, the
Royal Society
> meeting is still expected to be heavily oversubscribed; hence early
> registration as above is strongly recommended
> Rosalyn Lawrence, ICN Secretary, for the Organisers
> John Draper
> Departmental Administrator
> Psychology Department
> UCL
> Gower Street
> London WC1E 6BT
> tel: 020 7679 5338
> fax: 020 7436 4276
j.draper(a)ucl.ac.uk
http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/john.draper/john.html
--
Dr Michael Simpson
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
Innovation Way
York
YO10 5DG
Tel: 01904 567614
Web: http://www.ynic.york.ac.uk
Dear all,
As of this email, the YNiC Image of the Month competition is live. Let
me explain ...
Each month YNiC is encouraging Users to submit an image of general
interest, plus up to 100 words of explanatory text, into the Image of
the Month contest. The best image will then be put on the web and
published along with its text for a month. So, do you fancy seeing your
work held up as an example of the science that is being carried out at
YNiC? If so, email your images and text to:
iotm(a)ynic.york.ac.uk
Please send your images in .jpg (or similar format) to keep the file
size small.
Images will be judged by YNiC staff for both their aesthetic and
scientific content. So, make your pictures pretty, but also make sure
they explain something of the hypothesis which you are testing. Your 100
words will be essential in swinging this part of the vote!
Good luck,
Michael
--
Dr Michael Simpson
Science Liaison Officer
York Neuroimaging Centre
Innovation Way
York
YO10 5DG
Tel: 01904 567614
Web: http://www.ynic.york.ac.uk