#4 - 08.05.2018
Contact Session #4
Brain network science: from theory to practice. Hubs, clubs, and modules.
Intended learning outcomes:
- Familiarize with concepts from graph theory and network science
- Consider methods to study network properties in the brain and what they mean
- Evaluate network science concepts within the scope of neuroscience and critically assess studies with graph-theoretical approaches.
Pre-assignment
A quest for meaning
In this pre-assignment all you need to do is searching for your niche and for what you like. It sounds easier than what it actually is, searching for your (scientific) niche might take years, but it has to start at some point and now it is a good time for doing that if you have never done it.
Task 1. Explore freely. Open google and dig out anything that is about brain and connectivity and that you find very interesting. Keep on exploring what you like, get lost in the depths of the internet. Your curiosity, your taste and your personality should come out during this process. You might find an interesting paper, or an amazing figure, a software tool for doing brain connectivity, an interesting video lecture. Anything that makes you saying "wow, I wish I did that" or "this is supercool I want to share it with the others". Then, out of the many interesting things you will find, pick the best ones and share them with the world (= post to our forum).
Task 2. Find an interesting review paper. This is similar to the task above, but limited to scientific literature and specifically review papers. Review papers are important in science as they summarize many years of research and often provide novel perspectives. They are the best starting points when it comes to learning a new topic. Using pubmed (or any similar database) find a review article about brain and connectivity that you personally think it is very interesting or close to your personal interests. If you don't know where to start, try the journal Nature Review Neuroscience or the journal Trends in Cognitive Science. Post your favorite review paper(s) to the forum.
Searching tips: learn google, scholar and pubmed tips. It makes you more efficient in digging out what you want to find. See for example https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/20-tips-use-google-search-efficiently.html, https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/advanced and I am sure you will find even more tips yourselves.
Lecture slides and material
Slides and materials will be uploaded at the bottom of this page.
Make-up assignment
If you couldn't make it to the fourth contact session, please catch up with the others with the assignment here below.
Slides for CS#4 Tiedosto PDF document
Return your make up assignment here Tehtävä
The purpose of the substitute assignment is only for you to be at the same level of other students who attended this session. If you missed this contact session, please return your make-up assignment as a single PDF file.
First, your reading tasks are
1 Go through the slides of this session (link at the bottom of this page)
2 For the slides that you find more interesting, follow the referenced papers and check them (follow the fast reading advices, you don't need to read the whole papers)
Finally, given what you have read, write your reflection on the topic: why did you choose those slides? what was interesting in the referenced papers? What did you learn from the slides/references? What do you feel you would like to learn more about? Write a 500 words essay.
Submit the 500 words assignment (Arial 11pt, 1.5 line spacing) as a single PDF file. Please include references to other articles (references do not add on word count).