MEG Training workshop

Lecture slides are now available online (see program items below)
See also pictures of the event.

November 17-18, 2011 MEG Training Workshop organized by the Canada MEG Consortium
November 19, 2011 Followed by a Brainstorm hands-on training course

Registration is now closed for both events.

Download final version of the program (click here)

Instructions on how to prepare your laptop for the workshop

Location

Montreal Neurological Institute
McGill University
Montrιal, QC

Objectives

This two-day training workshop is an initiative of the Canada MEG Consortium (CMC) to promote and disseminate magnetoencephalography (MEG) as a brain imaging technique, in Canada an beyond. The CMC regroups the 6 Canadian MEG centres as a joint academic network and MEG task force for access, education, shared expertise and instrument and software resources about MEG, for neuroscience and neuroimaging investigators.

This first training workshop has the following objectives:
  • To educate investigators who are new to brain imaging, and to MEG in particular about the possibilities offered by MEG as a brain functional imaging technique;
  • To expose the conceptual foundations of MEG signal analysis and imaging;
  • To clarify the typical workflow for MEG data analysis
  • To provide a first, elementary hands-on experience with data acquisition and analysis
  • To incite investigators to consider MEG as the modality of choice for their research projects.

Brainstorm hands-on training course

The CMC training will be immediately followed by a Brainstorm hands-on training course (joint or separate registration required), where attendees will be able to extensively go through multiple practical aspects of MEG signal analysis and source imaging, using Brainstorm (attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptops; PCs will also be available).

See program here

Targeted audience

Investigators (faculty, research associates and students) new to neuroimaging or to MEG in particular, willing to learn about MEG as a potential modality of choice for their clinical or cognitive neuroscience studies. An emphasis will be made on the complementarity of MEG with functional MRI (fMRI) and EEG.

Registration

CMC + Brainstorm courses (3 days) $45 (students and post-docs); $75 (faculty)
CMC 2-day workshop only $30 (students and post-docs); $45 (faculty)
Brainstorm course only $30 (students & post-docs) ; $45 (faculty)
  • Includes access to teaching material (slides)
  • Free coffee !
  • Lunch on your own (many options on and around McGill's campus)
  • Non refundable
  • Registration is open until the roster of 75 available seats is filled

Program, Day 1: Nov 17

Morning – Concepts and foundations

08:00–08:30 Welcome and coffee.
08:30–08:45 Forewords
Sylvain Baillet, MNI, McGill University
08:45–09:00 Presentation of the CMC initiative
Pierre Jolicoeur, University of Montreal
Douglas Cheyne, SickKids Toronto
09:00–09:45 Physiological origins of MEG signals
Neural sources of electromagnetic fields detected by MEG & EEG; specificity of MEG
Sylvain Baillet, MNI, McGill University
09:45–10:15 MEG instrumentation & environment
Interfacing with the system; acquisition parameters; recording with EEG, subject preparation
Tim Bardouille, Halifax
10:15–10:30 Coffee break
10:30–11:15 Paradigm design
Detection of event-related evoked, induced and steady-sate responses
Bernhard Ross, Rotman, Baycrest
11:15–12:00 MEG source imaging
Understanding the forward and the inverse source estimation problems
Christophe Grova, McGill University
12:00–12:45 Roundtable, floor open to questions.
12:45–14:30 Lunch

Afternoon – MEG in practice

14:30–15:00 Clinical MEG
A brief overview of its application to epilepsy
Eliane Kobayashi, MNI, McGill University
15:00–15:30 Auditory processes
Bernhard Ross, Rotman, Baycrest
15:30–16:00 Sensorimotor processes
Douglas Cheyne, SickKids, Toronto
16:00–16:15 Coffee break
16:15–17:00 Attention and cognition
Pierre Jolicoeur, University of Montreal
17:00–17:30

Neural oscillations, connectivity; perspectives on pathology

Urs Ribary, Simon Fraser University
17:30–18:00 Roundtable, floor open to questions.

Program, Day 2: Nov 18

Morning - Data acquisition

McGill MEG Suite, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, MNI

09:00–12:00 Practice of MEG data acquisition
Recording of basic visual and somatosensory responses, including, options for subject preparation, stimulus presentation, setting-up acquisition parameter, data acquisition, basic data review for quality control
Beth Bock & Sylvain Baillet, MNI, McGill
12:00–14:00 Lunch

Afternoon – Hands-on, data analysis

14:00-16:30

Practice of a selection of software for data reviewing, processing
Many software solutions – both commercial and academic - are available to process MEG data.The goal of this session is to provide new users with a first hands-on experience with reviewing their MEG data. We will use the data recorded in the morning and feature the CTF software suite, which examplifies well the MEG software experience.

Teresa Cheung & Alex Moiseev, Simon Fraser University and the MEG team @ McGill
16:30-16:45 Coffee break
16:45-17:30 Spatial filtering and beamforming analysis
This session will briefly review the spatial filtering method of source imaging for MEG data, and provide some hands-on experience using the Synthetic Aperture Magnetometry (SAM) tools in the CTF software suite, as well as the spatiotemporal beamforming (erSAM) technique, using data examples from the morning session.
Douglas Cheyne, SickKids, Toronto & Teresa Cheung, Simon Fraser University

Program, Day 3: Nov 19

Brainstorm hands-on training course

Download final version of the program (click here)