Introduction to Functional Imaging of the Human Brain

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) plays a crucial role in the understanding of functional organization of the human brain. fMRI is an inherently multidisciplinary method, for which data acquisition techniques and data analysis methods are constantly evolving.

The course is designed to develop participants’ understanding of: (I)

physics and physiology underlying MRI and fMRI, including basic safety issues; (II) most important methods used for structural and functional neuroimaging (MRI, fMRI, DTI, rs-fMRI); (III) their potential, limitations, and application to cognitive neuroscience and psychology; (IV) fMRI data preprocessing and statistical analysis, including practical hands-on sessions. Students will also have an opportunity to plan their own fMRI

experiment.

The course will consist of 5 meetings, 6 hours each

Selected bibliography:

Poldrack RA, Mumford JA, Nichols TE (2011). Handbook of Functional MRI

Data Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ashby G (2011). Statistical Analysis of fMRI Data. Cambridge, Mass.: The

MIT Press.

Banaszkiewicz A, Matuszewski J, Bola Ł, Szczepanik M, Kossowski B,

Rutkowski P, Szwed M, Emmorey K, Jednoróg K, Marchewka A.

Multimodal imaging of brain reorganization in hearing late learners of

sign language. Hum Brain Mapp. 2021 Feb 1;42(2):384-397. doi:

10.1002/hbm.25229.

Herman AM, Palmer C, Azevedo RT, Tsakiris M. Neural divergence and

convergence for attention to and detection of interoceptive and

somatosensory stimuli. Cortex. 2021;135: 186–206.

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.019

Herman AM, Critchley HD, Duka T. Binge drinking is associated with

attenuated frontal and parietal activation during successful response

inhibition in fearful context. Eur J Neurosci. 2019;50: 2297–2310.

doi:10.1111/ejn.14108

Kaźmierowska AM, Kostecki M, Szczepanik M, Nikolaev T, Hamed A,

Michałowski JM, Wypych M, Marchewka A, Knapska E. Rats respond to

aversive emotional arousal of human handlers with the activation of the

basolateral and central amygdala. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Nov

14;120(46):e2302655120.

Olszewska AM, Droździel D, Gaca M, Kulesza A, Obrębski W, Kowalewski J,

Widlarz A, Marchewka A, Herman AM. Unlocking the musical brain: A

proof-of-concept study on playing the piano in MRI scanner with

naturalistic stimuli. Heliyon. 2023 Jul 11;9(7):e17877. doi:

10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17877.

Wypych M., Michałowski J.M., Droździel D., Borczykowska M., Szczepanik

M., Marchewka A. Attenuated brain activity during error processing and

punishment anticipation in procrastination – a monetary Go/No-go fMRI

study. Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 11492 (2019) doi:

10.1038/s41598-019-48008-4

Zaremba, D., Kossowski, B., Wypych, M. et al. CLIMATE BRAIN -

Questionnaires, Tasks and the Neuroimaging Dataset. Sci Data 12, 726

(2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05038-0

Additional materials:

https://cbmm.mit.edu/fmri-bootcamp

https://www.andysbrainblog.com/