3rd Modelling Symposium:

Introducing MultiVariate Pattern Analysis using CoSMoMVPA

Organized by Felix Ball, Emanuele Porcu, Peter Vavra, Nico Marek, Camila Agostino & Tömme Noesselt

Funded by ...

Overview

We are pleased to announce the 3rd Modelling Symposium which provides once more a mix of theoretical and application-oriented analyses. We also welcome a new tutor -- Dr. Nikolaas N. Oosterhof -- who brings along new topics. This year's symposium will be centred around Multivariate-Pattern-Analyses. More specifically, it will focus on MVPA for EEG, MEG and fMRI data by means of CoSMoMVPA (http://www.cosmomvpa.org/). As the general structure of CoSMoMVPA and PyMVPA is similar, learning CoSMoMVPA also helps to start with other software packages such as PyMVPA.

When & Where

When

22.07.2019 - 26.07.2019

Dinner

23.07.2019; Start 7 pm
We will dine at the Hoflieferant. Please register for the dinner so we can book a table. The dinner is optional and self-paid.

Wednesday off!

There has to be some time to digest!

Location

Universitätsplatz campus, Gebäude 28, room 27

Detailed Program (might be subject to changes)

1st half of week

Monday

09.00 - 10.30: General introduction
                        Break
11.00 - 12.30: Getting started
                         Break
14.00 - 15.30: Split-half correlations
                         Break
16.00 - 17.30: Classification analysis

Break

17.40 - 18.30: OPTIONAL - Discussing your data models

Tuesday

09.00 - 10.30: Classification with cross-validation
                        Break
11.00 - 12.30: CoSMoMPVA measures part 1
                         Break
14.00 - 15.30: CoSMoMPVA measures part 2
                         Break
16.00 - 17.30: Neighborhoods and searchlight basics

Break

17.40 - 18.30: OPTIONAL - Discussing your data models

2nd half of week

Thursday

09.00 - 10.30: Whole brain fMRI searchlight.
                        Break
11.00 - 12.30: M/EEG searchlight part 1
                         Break
14.00 - 15.30: M/EEG searchlight part 2
                         Break
16.00 - 17.30: M/EEG time generalization

Break

17.40 - 18.30: OPTIONAL - Discussing your data models

Friday

09.00 - 10.30: Present your data
                        Break
11.00 - 12.30: Representational similarity analysis
                         Break
14.00 - 15.30: Surface-based searchlight
                         Break
16.00 - 17.30: Multiple comparison correction/Concluding remarks

Software, Code, Equipment, & Requirements

All information will be regularly updated, so please check for updates!

Software: This year, we will use Matlab and the software package CoSMoMVPA

Code: The codes for this workshop can be downloaded on the CoSMoMVPA website.

Equipment: You will need a laptop. You will need a functional Matlab licence (although it might be possible for us to provide a temporary licence - we have to check). We will provide power sockets.

Requirements: As we will use a programming language (i.e. Matlab) you should be familiar with it or should at least be proficient in another programming language such as Python. Anyways, it will be advantages to familiarise yourself with Matlab beforehand. Check out this introduction or the coursera Matlab course.

Speaker: Dr. Nikolaas N. Oosterhof

He worked with James Haxby at the CIMeC and his research focuses on the cognitive and neural representation of actions and attention. In this line of research data is acquired with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) and analysed using multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA).

Besides empirical work, he was also involved in the development of the PyMVPA (Python) and CoSMoMVPA (Matlab) toolboxes.

Coffee special

Life is too short for bad coffee!

We are pleased to announce that the “Kaffeebar” will be a sponsor of this year’s symposium. All our attendees will get a discount on certain beverages which will be announced in the introduction session. Thanks to Christian Kühn!

Registration

Please register until 27.03.2019!

Restricted number of attendees

As we only have one tutor this year, the number of attendees is limited to 25 people.

Present your data

Based on the great success of last year's session, also this year you will have the opportunity to discuss your data and potential analyses with our speaker. If you're interested in doing so, please indicate it in the registration form below. We will ask you to present your project to the audience in a 5 min presentation on Friday morning.

Poster presentations are also welcome (again indicate below). Depending on demand, we will provide an appropriate slot.

Funding, Catering and Dinner (please read carefully)

This year, we have a mandatory fee of 150 € per attendee which will be exclusively used to finance the catering. The catering would again be ordered at Yodett. Nonetheless, we are currently looking for additional funding, which might result in a partial or full refund of the fee.

In case you also want to attend the dinner (self-paid), you will also have to transfer a 30 € security deposit. At the dinner, we will hand back the deposit. The deposit is only to assure that you either attend the dinner or cancel in time (at least 1 week in advance). If you just drop out, the deposit will be used to pay the restaurant for their loss and you will not be refunded.

Please note that we cannot refund the fee and the deposit. Refund depends on whether we find someone to take your spot (or finding sponsors for catering).

By registering, you agree to the abovementioned terms.

Motivational statement

Please provide a short and concise motivational statement (max. 300 words). This statement will be part of the selection process. We will make a decision by begin/mid of April and confirm your attendance by the 15th of April latest.