Monday, June 26, 2017

Morning Symposia 8:00-9:15 Room
Method Validation in functional MRI using Realistic Simulations Ballroom C
Large-scale spatial trends in cortical organization Ballroom AB
Uncovering complexity with long-term naturalistic recordings 220-222
How visual experience affects (or not) the functional organization of the "visual"? cortex 211-214
   
Keynote Lecture 9:30-10:15 Room
Kalanit Grill-Spector, PhD
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Ballroom AB

Brain Growth and the Development of Face Recognition
How do brain mechanisms develop from childhood to adulthood? There is extensive debate if brain development is due to pruning of excess neurons, synapses, and connections, leading to reduction of responses to irrelevant stimuli, or if development is associated with growth of dendritic arbors, synapses, and myelination leading to increased responses and selectivity to relevant stimuli. Our research addresses this central debate using cutting edge multimodal imaging, obtaining multiple measurements of brain function using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and brain anatomy using quantitative MRI (qMRI) and diffusion MRI (dMRI) in each of 27 children (ages 5-12) and 30 adults (ages 22-28). We use the face recognition system as a model system to study brain development as it is a well understood cortical system that shows particularly protracted development throughout childhood and adolescence, into adulthood.

Both functional and anatomical measurements provide compelling empirical evidence supporting the growth hypothesis. Functionally, results reveal (1) age-related increases in the size of face-selective regions, (2) age-related increases in responsiveness and selectivity to faces, and (3) a developmental increase in neural sensitivity to face identity, which is correlated with an increase in perceptual discriminability of faces. Importantly, this development is specific, occurring in face- but not object- and place-selective regions and cannot be explained by differences in data quality or measurement noise across age groups. Anatomically, we find (1) age-related decreases in T1 relaxation that are associated with increases in macromolecular tissue volume in face- but not place-selective regions, which we validate in histological slices of postmortem brains, (2) this tissue development is correlated with specific increases in functional selectivity to faces, as well as improvements in face recognition, and (3) the largest developmental decreases in both T1 relaxation and mean diffusivity occur close to the gray-white matter boundary of face-selective regions, suggesting that in addition to dendritic complexification increased myelination may contribute to tissue growth. Together, these data suggest a new model by which emergent brain function and behavior during childhood result from cortical tissue growth rather than from pruning.

 
   
LOC Symposia 10:50-12:00 Room
Myelin Water Imaging in Human Brain: Principles, Validation and Applications
White matter makes up 40% of brain tissue. Myelin is a critical structural and functional component of white matter that allows rapid and effective information exchange in the brain. Recent animal work shows that myelin is neuroplastic.  Using a rodent model, McKenzie et al. (2014) established the relationship between oligodendrocyte proliferation and learning, showing accelerated oligodendrocyte generation is associated with performance of a complex skill and an absence of motor learning when these cells were genetically blocked. However, much less is known about what changes in myelin are associated with learning or following brain damage in humans. Recently non-invasive imaging techniques have emerged that can characterize myelin in vivo in humans. This symposium will provide suggestions for the implementation of myelin water imaging to index myelin in humans in future work. 

 
Ballroom AB
Publishing Round Table 12:00-14:30 Room
During this roundtable, attendees will be provided with an overview of the current landscape and trends within the publishing community followed by a facilitated discussion with key journal editors.  Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in open dialogue with the panel to gain knowledge that will assist with publishing their own work. 
 
211-214
Philips Lunch Symposium 12:00-14:30 Room

Elevate neuro diagnostics
At this year's lunch symposium we are excited to update you on the latest updates in our Neuro MR portfolio and in addition invite you to listen to innovative Neuro brain mapping research from Vancouver and Sherbrooke. Dr. Maxime Descoteaux and Dr. Alexander Rauscher will elaborate on brain mapping activities, beyond diffusion- or fMRI only imaging with the aim that all combined should bring a more complete picture of brain connectivity.

220-222
Poster Session 12:45-14:45 Exhibit Hall
Poster Numbers #1000-2224
Authors with even numbered posters will present their posters today.
 
   
Afternoon Symposia 14:45-16:00 Room
Predicting the future: Multivariate models of brain-ageing in health and disease Ballroom C
Multimodal Functional Cartography: from connectivity to cognition Ballroom AB
Inferring brain-computational mechanisms by testing representational models 211-214
   
Keynote Lecture 16:15-17:00 Room
Tal Yarkoni
University of Texas at Austin, TX, United States
Ballroom AB
Threats to valid inference with fMRI: a primer
Functional MRI is a powerful tool, but like most powerful tools, it works best when operated with care and consideration. In this talk, I selectively review a number of methodological and statistical issues that are routinely overlooked in neuroimaging studies, yet threaten the validity of many common inferences. These include concerns about measurement error, construct validity, statistical confounding, causal attribution, and generalizability of results. Drawing on both contemporary examples from neuroimaging and decades of domain-general psychometric research, I demonstrate how researchers who ignore such concerns run a substantial risk of getting major conclusions wrong--or, worse, not even wrong. For principled reasons, I do not, however, discuss any solutions to these problems.
 
   
Oral Sessions 17:15-18:30 Room
Acquisition Methods Ballroom AB
Informatics 211-214
Perception & Attention Ballroom C
Psychiatric Disorders 220-222
   
8th Annual NeuroBureau & OHBM Student/Postdoc SIG Gala Location

Open Science Block Party
901/957/958 Granville Street
Monday, June 26th

OHBM badge needed for admission and free drink
Student and Postdocs: 19:00-01:00
All OHBM Attendees: 20:00-01:00

901/957/958 Granville Street


Next:  Tuesday, June 27

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