Table of Contents
College 1: Spontaneous brain activity, thoughts, and feelings............................................1
College 2: Neuronal basis of EEG........................................................................................3
College 3: Basics of DSP and oscillations.............................................................................3
College 4: theory of critical brain dynamics........................................................................3
Vervolg brain dynamics......................................................................................................7
College event related potentials (ERPs)..............................................................................9
College: Biomarkers of brain disorders.............................................................................12
Guest lecture: neurons of our cognition............................................................................16
College brain computer interfaces....................................................................................16
EEG biofeedback therapy..................................................................................................18
College 1: Spontaneous brain activity, thoughts, and
feelings
Cognitive Neuroscience:
• The combined study of mind and brain
• Revolutionized by neuroimaging techniques
• Allow exploring the biology of:
– Conscious experience (Neural Correlates of Consciousness)
– Unconscious processes (decision making, intuition, subliminal perception, …)
– The disordered mind
– Aims to improve also diagnosis and treatment of brain-disorders
• …and increasingly inspires artificial intelligence (e.g., deep learning)
PET (positron emission tomorgraphy)
- Principle:
- Radioactive material is injected (e.g., fluorodeoxyglucose, FDG).
- The FDG sugar accumulates in brain areas that are metabolically active.
- The decay of FDG gives off a neutron and a positron
- the positron hits an electron and annihilates into 2 gamma rays, which are detected
One of the fascinating results from
the use of PET is the remarkably
high metabolic demands of the
brain:
Metabolism of the brain is huge:
~20% of the whole body (!).
Per gram of tissue, the brain
consumes larger amounts of energy
during rest than the beating heart.
,However, because metabolic change in a typical task amounts to less than ~5% it was not
considered possible to just record brain activity during just one task.
Thus, to figure out which activities and brain areas were responsible for a given brain
task/function, cognitive scientists recorded the PET signal (i.e., the glucose consumption)
during blocks of different tasks and subtracted the brain activity from the two tasks.
That would usually allow for a more accurate interpretation of the functional specialization
of specific brain areas.
fMRI has largely replaced PET in Cognitive Neuroscience
- fMRI is an indirect measure of brain activity!!
- Measures change in blood flow BOLD (blood oxygenation level dependent)
Default mode: functional brain system that is active during rest and deactivated during
goal directed behavior.
Interest into the question of resting-state brain activity gained further momentum when
it turned out that the areas showing de-activation during goal-directed behavior were
also functionally connected. It seemed like an anatomically distributed, yet functionally
connected system.
, College 2: Neuronal basis of EEG
College 3: Basics of DSP and oscillations
College 4: theory of critical brain dynamics
“In cortical networks, a dynamic balance between excitation and inhibition
gives rise to an array of network oscillations involving neuronal populations of varying sizes.
This self-organized, or so-called ‘spontaneous’ activity is the most striking
and yet perhaps least appreciated feature of the cerebral cortex.”
Criticality vs self organized criticality?
Critical state= maximal complex
Perbak in book said:
Self-organized criticality requires:
• Driven
• Many units
• Non-linear interactions
• Self-organization
neurons?
Neuroscience misses theories and models
Examples where theories really matter: black hole,
gravitational waves,..
neuroscience doesn’t make predictions (“I think we
should”)
He thinks critical brain dynamics could become a theory.
College 1: Spontaneous brain activity, thoughts, and feelings............................................1
College 2: Neuronal basis of EEG........................................................................................3
College 3: Basics of DSP and oscillations.............................................................................3
College 4: theory of critical brain dynamics........................................................................3
Vervolg brain dynamics......................................................................................................7
College event related potentials (ERPs)..............................................................................9
College: Biomarkers of brain disorders.............................................................................12
Guest lecture: neurons of our cognition............................................................................16
College brain computer interfaces....................................................................................16
EEG biofeedback therapy..................................................................................................18
College 1: Spontaneous brain activity, thoughts, and
feelings
Cognitive Neuroscience:
• The combined study of mind and brain
• Revolutionized by neuroimaging techniques
• Allow exploring the biology of:
– Conscious experience (Neural Correlates of Consciousness)
– Unconscious processes (decision making, intuition, subliminal perception, …)
– The disordered mind
– Aims to improve also diagnosis and treatment of brain-disorders
• …and increasingly inspires artificial intelligence (e.g., deep learning)
PET (positron emission tomorgraphy)
- Principle:
- Radioactive material is injected (e.g., fluorodeoxyglucose, FDG).
- The FDG sugar accumulates in brain areas that are metabolically active.
- The decay of FDG gives off a neutron and a positron
- the positron hits an electron and annihilates into 2 gamma rays, which are detected
One of the fascinating results from
the use of PET is the remarkably
high metabolic demands of the
brain:
Metabolism of the brain is huge:
~20% of the whole body (!).
Per gram of tissue, the brain
consumes larger amounts of energy
during rest than the beating heart.
,However, because metabolic change in a typical task amounts to less than ~5% it was not
considered possible to just record brain activity during just one task.
Thus, to figure out which activities and brain areas were responsible for a given brain
task/function, cognitive scientists recorded the PET signal (i.e., the glucose consumption)
during blocks of different tasks and subtracted the brain activity from the two tasks.
That would usually allow for a more accurate interpretation of the functional specialization
of specific brain areas.
fMRI has largely replaced PET in Cognitive Neuroscience
- fMRI is an indirect measure of brain activity!!
- Measures change in blood flow BOLD (blood oxygenation level dependent)
Default mode: functional brain system that is active during rest and deactivated during
goal directed behavior.
Interest into the question of resting-state brain activity gained further momentum when
it turned out that the areas showing de-activation during goal-directed behavior were
also functionally connected. It seemed like an anatomically distributed, yet functionally
connected system.
, College 2: Neuronal basis of EEG
College 3: Basics of DSP and oscillations
College 4: theory of critical brain dynamics
“In cortical networks, a dynamic balance between excitation and inhibition
gives rise to an array of network oscillations involving neuronal populations of varying sizes.
This self-organized, or so-called ‘spontaneous’ activity is the most striking
and yet perhaps least appreciated feature of the cerebral cortex.”
Criticality vs self organized criticality?
Critical state= maximal complex
Perbak in book said:
Self-organized criticality requires:
• Driven
• Many units
• Non-linear interactions
• Self-organization
neurons?
Neuroscience misses theories and models
Examples where theories really matter: black hole,
gravitational waves,..
neuroscience doesn’t make predictions (“I think we
should”)
He thinks critical brain dynamics could become a theory.
