Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Selected topics in areas not currently offered as formal courses within the undergraduate course offerings in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology. The topics in this course will vary from term to term, depending on faculty availability and student interest.

COURSE DETAILS:

Note that the most up to date and term-specific schedule is found on Canvas, on the Calendar.

Course topics include:

• MRI and structural and functional network imaging
• EEG and MEG: Mapping the neurophysiological network communication
• Graph theory and network neuroscience
• Development of brain networks
• Consciousness as a brain network phenomenon
• Animal models in network neuroscience
• Computational modeling
• Network neuroscience of cognition and perception
• Neurology and neuropsychiatry
• Network neuroscience of movement control

Assessments: overview

See "Grading" section below


Assessments: details

Tutorial participation and discussion: This will involve contributions to discussion in tutorials.

Presentation of a journal article and leading discussion: Students will select one of the journal articles from assigned readings and present to the group in powerpoint format including a brief overview of relevant background, knowledge gap and hypotheses, methods, results and significance.  The presentation itself should be in Powerpoint format and is expected to be about 10-15 minutes in legth.  The student will then answer any questions from the tutorial group and lead discussion with any remaining time.  Ths portion is espected to last approximately 5-10 minutes.

Summary and opinion piece of a journal article. Students will coose one of the journal articles from assigned.  The assignement will consist of two parts, each one page (single spaced). The first page a brief overview of relevant background, knowledge gap and hypotheses, methods, results and significance.  The second page of the assignment will be a ‘thought piece’ or ‘opinion piece’.  For example, this could be a critique, a proposal for a follow up experiment to pursue unanswered questions, or any similar extrapolation consisting of the student's own reflection on the article.

Journal articles will be assigned in September and a detailed marking scheme for this assignment will be provided. Beyond this marking scheme, here is what is permitted regarding feedback prior to submission:

• The TA IS NOT permitted to “teach” or “explain” a whole figure or paper to students in office hours. An example of a reasonable question in office hours is: “My understanding of this experiment is… Am I on the right track?” Students must formulate their own interpretation of the data, addressing each portion of the rubric, before arriving to office hours.
• The TA IS NOT permitted to work “from nothing” to answer questions. (e.g., “I can’t decide what results to include in my summary and what to omit. Can you help me?”)
• The TA IS NOT permitted to provide feedback on a draft of the assignment (i.e., the TA cannot pre-grade the assignment prior to submission).
• The TA IS permitted to provide feedback on a draft outline of the assignment (e.g., “I’ve outlined the specific results I think are important, for reasons a, b, and c. I have omitted these other experiments, for reasons x, y, and z. Do you think I’m on the right track?”

Students who are assigned the same paper can (and should) collaborate to help one another understand the paper. However, they must carefully avoid writing together: the same sentences submitted by two different students will constitute plagiarism.

Midterm exam (25%): The midterm exams are scheduled on the Canvas calendar and will be held in the lecture time slot

Final exam (35%). These tests will be cumulative, and held during the final exam period. All course material is eligible for testing, although untested material will be emphasized.

Course policies:

• Attendance is critical and expected. Students who cannot attend tutorial from the beginning of the semester should not take this course.
• Collegial conduct is expected at all times. Students are expected to be polite and professional in all interactions with their colleagues, the instructor, and the TA. This includes both face-to-face and digital interactions (including and especially email). We encourage students to ask for feedback to improve their learning and performance; however, arguing over grades is not collegial, nor is complaining.
• Missed exams can be made up, with the following stipulations: If students are physically unable to write a test due to a legitimate planned conflict (e.g., varsity or club competition), they must email the TA with documentation. If students are physically unable to write a test due to an unforeseen event (e.g., illness or emergency), they should inform the instructors and the TA via email.
• There will only be one date for make up for each exam (Midterm and the Final exam). This date has to work for all of the students affected, who will work together to arrive at a date and time that works within our availability.
• All make up exams will be different tests, typically with fewer questions; that is, students will not have as many questions to select from (e.g., 3 questions, answer 3 instead of 5 questions, answer 3).
• The Final Exam Makeup may be written OR oral, depending on the instructors’ preference.
• Plagiarism or academic misconduct will be dealt with severely. The University codes of academic integrity and good conduct can be found at (sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student.html. There is a zero-tolerance policy for cheating: a grade of zero on the relevant test or assignment is the typical immediate penalty.
• Grades are reviewed by the department at the end of term. If the grades in a class are unusually high or low, the department reserves the right to adjust grades outside of the ranges indicated below. It is not the intent of the instructors or the department to adjust or curve grades and this rarely occurs in BPK 423.

Grade ranges	Overall %	Letter Grade
Mastery	>=92	A+
Excellent Performance	87-91	A
	82-86	A-
	78-81	B+
Good Performance	74-77	B
	70-73	B-
	65-69	C+
Satisfactory Performance	60-64	C
	55-59	C-
Marginal Performance	50-54	D
Unsatisfactory Performance	<50	F

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of BPK 423, successful students will be able to:

1. Understand moden structural and functional imaging in terms of how these technologies have shaped our understanding of the brain as a network.
2. Interpret data and reason scientifically through the lens of major theoretical perspectives in network neuroscience.
3. Communicate effectively in both oral and written formats, and to use knowledge presented in this course to solve novel problems.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: