A Look Inside the Human Brain
Dimitrios Pantazis, Director of MEG Lab
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Modern imaging technologies at MIT and MGH provide exciting new ways to understand the structure and function of the human brain. We will provide guided tours of our imaging facilities and show how we use these tools to look inside the brain. Our recently installed MEG scanner, capable of measuring magnetic fields a billionth of the magnetic field of earth, can record the simultaneous firing of thousands of cortical neurons as they form dynamic networks. Our MRI scanners provide high resolution images of the human brain as subjects perform a wide range of perceptual and cognitive tasks. Our PET scanners can identify and localize specific molecules in the brain, revealing pathologies that may underlie many different brain disorders. TMS is a noninvasive method that uses electromagnetic induction to create weak electric currents and cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain. NIRS uses infrared light to illuminate tissue and infer brain activity through the diffusion and scattering of this light. We will introduce these technologies, offer lab tours and demonstrate data collection, and discuss their contribution to neuroscience and current projects at MIT and MGH.
Contact: Dimitrios Pantazis, 46-5147, 617 324-6292, PANTAZIS@MIT.EDU
| Jan/15 | Wed | 01:00PM-02:30PM | 46-3015 |
Topics include MRI instrumentation, magnetic fields, safety, functional imaging with BOLD response, diffusion imaging, and others.
Anastasia Yendiki - Assistant Professor, Steven P Shannon - Operations Manager and MR Research Technologist, Sheeba Arnold Anteraper - MR Programmer, Atsushi Takahashi - Assistant Director, MR Physicist
| Jan/17 | Fri | 11:00AM-12:00PM | 46-1171 |
A tour at the MRI lab. Demo scan (finger tapping) and data analysis.
MRI Lab: http://mcgovern.mit.edu/technology/martinos-imaging-center/technical-resources
Steven P Shannon - Operations Manager and MR Research Technologist, Sheeba Arnold Anteraper - MR Programmer, Atsushi Takahashi - Assistant Director, MR Physicist
| Jan/22 | Wed | 01:00PM-02:30PM | 46-3015 |
Electrophysiological basis of MEG signals; instrumentation; modeling; cortical rhythms; brain networks; combining MEG with fMRI, studying the human visual system.
Dimitrios Pantazis - Director of MEG Lab, Yu-Teng Chang - Post-doctoral Associate, Radoslaw Cichy - Post-doctoral Associate
| Jan/22 | Wed | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 46-1147 |
A tour at the MEG Lab, demo scan and data analysis of an MEG experiment
MEG Lab: http://mcgovern.mit.edu/technology/meg-lab
Dimitrios Pantazis - Director of MEG Lab, Yu-Teng Chang - Post-doctoral Associate, Radoslaw Cichy - Post-doctoral Associate, Kleovoulos Tsourides - Research Associate
| Jan/24 | Fri | 01:00PM-02:30PM | 46-3015 |
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) instrumentation, principles of light scattering and absorption, imaging of oxygenated hemoglobin, NIRS applications.
Juliette Selb - Instructor
| Jan/29 | Wed | 01:00PM-02:30PM | 46-3015 |
Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to depolarize and hyperpolarize neurons of the brain, applications to treat depression and examine basic mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, among others.
Tommi Raij - Instructor
| Jan/31 | Fri | 01:00PM-02:30PM | 46-3015 |
Seminar on Positron Emission Technology. Introduction to PET technology and scanners at MGH; applications in tumor detection; brain metabolic activity; gene expression; neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer¿s and Parkinson¿s; pharmacology etc.
Quanzheng Li - Assistant Professor
American Sign Language Introductory Course
Max Powers, Professor of Sign Language
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: none
An introduction class where students will learn the basic of sign language as well as deaf culture. They will be taught basic fingerspelling, vocabulary and how to form sentences in conversation. There will deaf culture in the class as well. It will cover the formation of American Sign Language as well as the influence of Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. There will be two guest speakers in the class. At the end of the class, there will be a fun project in sign language.
Contact: Max Powers, 617 225-7622, MAXP@MIT.EDU
| Jan/08 | Wed | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/09 | Thu | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/10 | Fri | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/13 | Mon | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/14 | Tue | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/15 | Wed | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/16 | Thu | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/17 | Fri | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/20 | Mon | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/21 | Tue | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
| Jan/22 | Wed | 02:30PM-04:00PM | 66-154 |
Heroes and Bystanders
Amanda Rothschild, PhD student Political Science
| Jan/27 | Mon | 03:30PM-05:00PM | Location TBD |
| Jan/29 | Wed | 03:30PM-05:00PM | Location TBD |
| Jan/30 | Thu | 03:30PM-05:00PM | Location TBD |
Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/20
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
What are our responsibilities to other human beings in crises ranging from school bullying to mass atrocity? Where does moral courage come from on an individual level? What makes one person a hero and another a bystander? Will states take costly action for the sake of moral goals? Come explore these themes with other MIT students in this seminar series! The series will examine the sources of moral courage and responsibility through discussion of philosophical writings on the subject, individual stories of both heroes and bystanders, and recent events including NATO’s intervention in Libya and the recent suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi. Material will be drawn from Camus’s The Plague, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower, Phillip Hallie’s Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed,Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men, and Samantha Power’s A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, among others. Although this is a non-credit course, students are encouraged to keep a reflective journal detailing their responses and reactions to course material.
Sponsor(s): Political Science
Contact: Amanda Rothschild, rothscaa@mit.edu
Methods for analyzing neural data
Ethan Meyers, Postdoctoral Associate, BCS, MIBR, CBMM, Wasim Malik, Instructor in Anesthesia Harvard Medical School, MGH
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
This course will cover several methods that are useful for analyzing neural data including conventional statistics, mutual information, point process models and decoding analyses. The emphasis will be on explaining the basic mathematical intuitions behind these methods, and giving practical hands-on experience for how these methods can be applied to real data. The class will be divided into lectures that will explain different methods and into laboratory classes where students can analyze real data. Students are welcome to attend any lecture/lab sessions that they find useful. The examples used will focus on neural spiking activity but we will also discuss other types of signals including MEG signals, and local field potentials. Some familiarity with neuroscience and basic statistics will be useful. Please signup for the class here: http://tinyurl.com/k5cec6f
For more information see: http://web.mit.edu/emeyers/www/IAP_2014/
Sponsor(s): Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Contact: Ethan Meyers, 46-5155, 617 447-7814, EMEYERS@MIT.EDU
| Jan/21 | Tue | 03:00PM-04:00PM | 46-3189 |
We will cover classical statistics which is the most widely used method to analyze neural data, and also mutual information analyses.
Ethan Meyers - Postdoctoral Associate, BCS, MIBR, CBMM
| Jan/22 | Wed | 03:00PM-04:00PM | 46-5193, Bring a laptop |
We will have Matlab exercises where you can try out classical statistics and mutual information analyses on real data.
Ethan Meyers - Postdoctoral Associate, BCS, MIBR, CBMM
| Jan/23 | Thu | 03:00PM-04:00PM | 46-3189, Bring a laptop |
We will cover population decoding analyses and dimensionality reduction analyses
Ethan Meyers - Postdoctoral Associate, BCS, MIBR, CBMM
| Jan/23 | Thu | 04:00PM-05:00PM | 46-3189, Bring a laptop |
We will have Matlab exercises where you can try out population decoding and dimensionality reduction methods.
Ethan Meyers - Postdoctoral Associate, BCS, MIBR, CBMM
| Jan/28 | Tue | 03:00PM-04:00PM | TBA |
We will cover point process models for data analysis.
Wasim Malik - Instructor in Anesthesia Harvard Medical School, MGH
| Jan/29 | Wed | 03:00PM-04:00PM | TBA, Bring a laptop |
We will have Matlab exercises where you can try out point process models on real data.
Wasim Malik - Instructor in Anesthesia Harvard Medical School, MGH
MITing of the Minds 2014, 10th Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference
Julia Markovits, Professor of Philosophy
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: none
This year's MITing of the Minds is the Tenth Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference. The conference will showcase recent work in a variety of areas in contemporary philosophy. Presentations will cover topics in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind, and will be accessible to a broad audience. Each day will feature talks by MIT faculty members, current students, and alumni of the graduate program
Sponsor(s): Linguistics and Philosophy
Contact: Julia Markovits, 32-D916, 715-4264, juliam@mit.edu
| Jan/23 | Thu | 11:00AM-06:00PM | 32-D461 |
| Jan/24 | Fri | 10:00AM-04:00PM | 32-D461 |
Please see website for details: http://web.mit.edu/philos/www/mm/
Questions for Christians
Kevin Ford, MIT InterVarsity Chaplain
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None
Christianity is a worldview that many perceive as inauthentic and unable to effectively engage with modern culture. This course will provide an atmosphere of instruction and dialogue that analyzes topics of faith and science, politics, sexuality, and religious exclusivity focusing on the coherence and application of Christian thinking in 2014.
Sponsor(s): Graduate Christian Fellowship
Contact: Kevin Ford, W11-071, 617-252-1782, IVCF@MIT.EDU
| Jan/09 | Thu | 02:00PM-03:15PM | 1-273 |
| Jan/16 | Thu | 02:00PM-03:15PM | 1-273 |
| Jan/23 | Thu | 02:00PM-03:15PM | 1-273 |
| Jan/30 | Thu | 02:00PM-03:15PM | 4-257, Note room change |
Kevin Ford - MIT InterVarsity Chaplain, Nathan Rittenhouse - RZIM New England Fellow, Alycia Wood - RZIM New England Fellow
Stoicism 101: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Happiness
David Jimenez-Gomez
| Feb/01 | Sat | 11:00AM-01:00PM | 56-167 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Repeating event, particpants welcome at any session
Prereq: None
Stoicism is an Ancient Greek philosophical system, mostly devoted to practical ethics. It has a set of philosophical tenets, as well as a toolbox of techniques, which were immensely popular in Ancient Greece and Rome. Among others, writer and politician Seneca and emperor Marcus Aurelius used Stoicism in their daily life.
Despite their pragmatic attitude, Stoics based their philosophy on a wide theoretical background, encompassing physics and logic. Like "philosophical engineers", they strived to derive practical implications from scientific principles.
After briefly introducing the basic concepts of the philosophy, we will talk about how to apply it through case studies. This workshop is hands-on: participation in the discussions is highly encouraged.
Sponsor(s): Secular Society of MIT
Contact: David Jimenez-Gomez, JIMENEZD@MIT.EDU
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