ESE Study Abroad 2009 in Germany
We are pleased to announce a new study abroad program for our ESE undergraduate students.
Students from Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University will learn about
medical imaging methods at the University of Tübingen MEG-Center, and the Max Planck
Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany. The details of the program are outlined below.
Program:
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Period: May 11, 2009 – May 15, 2009.
Students earn one unit of credit, with the option to continue working on an independent
study or undergraduate research course for a total of three units of credit.
Program includes lectures, projects, lab visits, and social programs.
Students will write a final report.
Monday, 05/11/09
9 am: Welcome
Dr. Hubert Preissl welcomed the group and presented a list of program activities to be performed
at the MEG-Center. He then gave a tour of the MEG-Center research facilities: (i) Adult MEG
lab ,(ii) F-MEG lab, and (iii) TIM lab.
10 am-7 pm: Lecture series
Title: The physics of SQUID
Summary: Principles of superconductivity, the Josephson junction, SQUID configurations, and
future developments.
Speaker: Prof. Reinhold Kleiner, Physics Department, University of Tubingen (UT)
Title: Brain imaging with special focus on MEG and fMEG
Summary: Overview on brain imaging, basics of MEG, inverse problem based on point source
and distributed source approach, fetal and newborn MEG, and adult MEG.
Speaker: Prof. Hubert Preissl, MEG-Center, UT
Title: Basics of fMRI
Summary: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), magnetic properties of matter, FMRI of the
Brain, movement artifacts, oxy and desoxyhemoglobin, metabolism of the Brain, Neurovascular
coupling, BOLD response, experimental setup, correlation between electrophysiology and
BOLD, experimental design, cases of clinical study.
Speakers: Prof. Wolfgang Grodd, Neuroradiology Department, UT
Prof. Uwe Klose, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, UT
Dr. Michael Erb, UT
Title: BCI and fMRI (Dr. Veit)
Summary: BCI and learning of self-regulation of brain activity, comparison of EEG and fMRI
for BCI, description of a fMRI-BCI system, online feedback of BOLD signals, experimental
design and applications.
Speaker: Dr. Ralf Veit, Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology institute, UT
7 pm: Dinner for Students and Lecturers
Tuesday, 05/12/09
10 am-4 pm: Visit to the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetic
Prof. Logothetis's research center:
Mrs. Rommel, the current assistant of Prof. Logothetis organized the tour and technical
presentations:
Title: Simultaneous Electrocortical Measurements and fMRI
Summary: Introduction to systems for electrocortical measurements and the novel developments
by his group of sensors compatible with fMRI. Description of the primate lab facility and the
importance of doing animal research for learning about the brain processes. Discussion of
fundamental neurosciences questions being studied today such as, what are the functional units
of the brain and the underlying mechanism of the BOLD signal?
Speaker: Dr. Matthias Munk, MPI for Biological Cybernetics
Title: Measuring changes in neurotransmitters concentrations
Summary: Introduction to the importance of monitoring the composition of the extracellular fluid
(ECF) for improving the understanding of neuronal communication and function. Emphasis is
currently devoted to the study of the neurochemical changes of the ECF from the monkey brain
during different cognitive states. Description of their nano flow sampling technique coupled with
high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) for highly
sensitive detection of changes in neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine,
GABA, glutamate and aspartate. Visit to the experimental facilities and description of current
works on multimodal imaging based on fMRI, electrocortical, and neurotransmitters
concentration measurements.
Speaker: Dr. Alexander Rauch, MPI for Biological Cybernetics
Title: Analysis of Ecog and BOLD measuremens from visual cortex
Summary: Importance of the integration of Ecog and fMRI recordings in unveiling brain
functionality. Introduction to the current scientific questions of interest such as, finding the
direct relationship between neural and hemodynamic activity and the spatial correspondence
between event-related potential (ERP) and BOLD signal. Presentation of a study case in the
visual cortex and some signal processing methods based on frequency analysis of the
measurements.
Speaker: Dr. Kevin Whittingstall, MPI for Biological Cybernetics
Title: Analysis of visual perception of motion and its neural substrates in the human brain using
fMRI
Summary: Introduction to the scientific paradigm and experimental setups for studying visual
perception of self and object motion or binocular rivalry using fMRI recordings. Descriptions of
techniques from computational vision and data analysis for characterizing stimuli and fMRI
measurements. The students visited the lab facility for studies on binocular rivalry.
Speaker: Dr. Andreas Bartels, MPI for Biological Cybernetics
Prof. Scholkopf Institute:
Discussion with Dr. Jerremy Hill
Title: Machine-learning methods to the development of BCI
Summary: Introduction to BCI and ongoing applications with paralyzed patients. Presentation of
the current scientific goals: Development of efficient algorithms for improving system
performance, reducing patient training times, and enabling rapid determination of the best
strategy for a given patient.
Speaker: Dr. Jerremy Hill, MPI for Biological Cybernetics
Wednesday, 05/13/09
9 am: Informative talk on the graduate school of Neurobiology at University of Tubingen
Host: Prof. Horst Herbert (more)
10 am-12 pm (noon): Lecture series
Title: Introduction to TMS
Summary: Basic principles of TMS functioning and clinical applications. Description of the
neural-navigation system. The students participated of a demonstration consisting of the
stimulation on arms and brain of some volunteers.
Speaker: Carola Arfeller, carola.arfeller@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Anne Christine Schmid, anne-christine.schmid@med.uni-tuebingen.de
12 pm (noon)- 2 pm: Visit to Department of Prosthodontics, Section Medical Materials &
Technology, UT
Host: Prof. Heiner Weber, Head and Chairman (more)
2 pm- 5 pm: Visit to the Laboratory for Preclinical Imaging and Imaging Technology of the
Werner Siemens-Foundation
Host: Mrs. Fischer
Thursday, 05/14/09
9 am-5 pm: Projects
Topic: Introduction to MEG technology
Speaker: Dr. Hubert Preissl
Topic: Discussion with Neurosurgeon
Speaker: Dr. Gharabaghi, Department of Neurosurgery, UT
Topic: Fetal MEG
Speaker: Dr. Rossitza Draganova
Topic: Adult MEG and BCI
Speaker: Doctoral student Matthias Witte
7 pm: Dinner with students and lab members
Friday, 05/15/09
9 am-12 pm (noon): Continuation of Projects
Topic: Adult MEG and BCI
Speaker: Doctoral student Matthias Witte
1 pm: Concluding Remarks and final Discussion
2 pm: Social Program
Visit: Excursion to Esslingen by train
Host: Mrs. Sabine Frank
Final Report: Each student should submit a web-report on their experience by July 15th, 2009.
The web report consist of two parts: The first should summarize your experience emphasizing
the modalities learned during the program, the visits to the labs, and personal thoughts on how
this program transformed you; In the second part, you should write more details on a particular
modality and clinical problem you are mostly interested on, which eventually you might like to
work on as an UGR. In particular, in this part you should provide an overview of the physical
principles of the imaging modality and the clinical application of interest.
Regarding the web-report style, the student should follow the ones posted under the UGR site
of ESE:
http://www.ese.wustl.edu/Research/CompleteUndergraduateResearchProject-1.asp
For example, please use as a guide the following reports:
- Kevin McKee:
http://ese.wustl.edu/UndergradResearch/sp08/Kevin%20Mckee/default.aspx.htm
- Joshua York: http://ese.wustl.edu/UndergradResearch\sp09\JoshuaYork