Tohoku University Cognitive Neuroscience Application Center

Announcing an fMRI Data Analysis Workshop!
(Two Days: August 18 & 21)
Are you struggling with where to begin with fMRI data analysis? Or perhaps you've tried self-study but find it difficult to grasp the full analysis workflow? To address these challenges, this workshop will systematically teach you the fundamental process of fMRI data analysis. By engaging in hands-on exercises and progressing step-by-step, participants will gain a deep understanding of each analysis stage and learn how to effectively apply these skills to their own research.
Rest assured, our experienced staff will serve as instructors, and highly skilled teaching assistants (TAs) will be on hand to provide individual support and answer your questions, ensuring a comfortable and supportive learning environment.

---

Target Audience: Researchers and graduate students new to fMRI data analysis
Dates & Times:
　Monday, August 18, 13:00 - 17:00
　Thursday, August 21, 13:00 - 17:00
Location: IDAC, Dept. Human Brain Science, 3rd Floor, SA Building
What to Bring: Laptop computer, brain imaging data (details will be provided later)
Registration: A registration form will be made available soon (currently under preparation).

---

DAY 1: From Software Setup to Individual Analysis
Day 1 focuses on building a strong foundation for fMRI data analysis. We will begin with the necessary software setup. Then, participants will engage in hands-on practice with SPM to perform "preprocessing," which involves removing noise specific to fMRI data. Once preprocessing is complete, we will proceed to individual (1st Level) analysis. You will learn the basics of the General Linear Model (GLM) and how to model task-related brain activity from a single subject's data.

DAY 2: Group Analysis, Result Interpretation, and Resting-State fMRI Fundamentals
On Day 2, using the results from individual analyses, we will integrate data from multiple subjects to explore group-level brain activity patterns through 2nd Level Analysis. You will also gain skills to professionally interpret these results utilizing anatomical atlases (e.g., AAL) and online databases (e.g., Neurosynth). Furthermore, we will delve into advanced, applied methods that can expand your research, such as multiple regression to explore relationships between brain activity and psycho-behavioral metrics, and ROI (Region of Interest) analysis focusing on specific brain regions. Finally, we will introduce the basics of functional connectivity analysis, a method gaining recent attention, to investigate brain networks using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data.