Dr. Timothy Laumann, Washington University in St. Louis, will lecture "Precision functional mapping in individual human brains."
Abstract: Measurement of correlations in Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has produced group-level descriptions of functional brain organization at multiple spatial scales. However, known inter-individual variability ensures that cross-subject averaging obscures patterns of brain organization specific to each individual. In this talk, I will review the development of a novel approach to fMRI data acquisition that relies on collecting extended, repeated samples on individual subjects. This approach, known as ‘precision functional mapping’ (PFM), provides precise and reliable estimates of functional brain organization in each person. I will demonstrate how this approach has led to fundamental new discoveries in brain organization and unexpected properties of network plasticity.
