Advanced MEG/EEG toolkit at the Donders
From May 27-31 2024 we will host our annual MEG/EEG Tool-kit course in Nijmegen. During this 5-day toolkit course we will teach you advanced MEG and EEG data analysis skills. Pre-processing, frequency analysis, source reconstruction, analysis methods such as RSA and TRFs, and various statistical methods will be covered. Furthermore, we will give special attention to new opportunities in experimental design and measurements with Optically Pumped Magnetometer (OPM) systems and mobile EEG.
The toolkit consists of a number of lectures, followed by hands-on sessions in which you will be tutored through the analysis of a MEG data set using the FieldTrip toolbox. Furthermore, we will schedule time for you to work on your own data under supervision of experienced tutors.
There are only 38 places available for this toolkit and from experience we expect the course to be over-subscribed. Participants will be selected on the basis of background experience, the research interest and the expectations on what to learn (see the questions during pre-registration). We prefer the group to be reasonably homogeneous in level and expertise of the participants, as this improves the overall interaction.
You can pre-register here, the deadline for pre-registration is April 15, 2024.
We will inform you as to whether you obtained a place in this course not later than Thursday April 29, 2024.
The fee is €550 for PhD students and €750 for senior researchers. If your institute is based in a low/middle income country, you will also be able to request a discount.
Program
Note that the tentative program below still might change a bit.
Monday May 27, 2024
| 09:00-09:30 | Registration and coffee |
| 09:30-10:00 | Welcome and personal introduction round |
| 10:00-11:00 | Introduction to EEG/MEG and introduction to the FieldTrip toolbox - lecture by Robert Oostenveld |
| 11:00-11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15-12:30 | EEG, MEG and OPM lab demonstrations |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-15:45 | Pre-processing - hands-on |
| 15:45-16:00 | Tea Break |
| 16:00-17:30 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
Tuesday May 28, 2024
| 09:00-09:30 | Morning chill or workout |
| 09:45-10:45 | Time frequency analysis of power - lecture by Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen |
| 10:45-11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00-12:30 | Time-frequency analysis of power - hands-on |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-14:30 | hands-on (continued) |
| 14:30-15:45 | Forward and inverse - lecture by Robert |
| 15:45-16:00 | Tea Break |
| 16:00-17:30 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
| 18:30-22:00 | Drinks & dinner |
Wednesday May 29, 2024
| 09:00-09:30 | Morning chill or workout |
| 09:30-11:00 | Special interest lecture, infant EEG - the beauty and the beast of developmental EEG - lecture by Marlene Meyer |
| 11:00-11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15-12:30 | Source reconstruction using beamformers - lecture (TBD) |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-15:45 | Beamforming - hands-on |
| 15:45-16:00 | Tea Break |
| 16:00-17:30 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
Thursday May 30, 2024
| 09:00-09:30 | Morning chill or workout |
| 09:45-11:00 | New methods for experimental design and analysis - lecture by Britta Westner |
| 11:00-11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15-12:30 | Statistics using non-parametric randomization techniques - lecture by Robert |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-15:45 | Statistics - hands-on |
| 15:45-16:00 | Tea Break |
| 16:00-17:30 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
Friday May 31, 2024
| 09:00-09:30 | Morning chill or workout |
| 09:45-11:00 | Lecture good scientific practices - lecture by Robert |
| 11:00-11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15-12:30 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-15:45 | FieldTrip playground, apply your newly acquired knowledge and skills |
| 15:45-16:00 | Tea Break |
| 16:00-16:30 | Evaluation and testimonials |
Practicalities
This will be an in-person event with no possibilities for hybrid or online attendance.
Wifi access
If you need wifi access and you don’t have a eduroam account through your institution, it is possible to get a visitor access. This needs to be renewed each day. Please follow the instructions on this intranet page.
FieldTrip playground sessions: BYOD (bring-your-own-data)
A large part of the toolkit will consist of playground sessions, in which ideally you will be working on your own data. Please think a bit about what you want to achieve, and ensure that you have your data easily accessible (preferably, if possible on the laptop that you bring yourself, or on an external USB-drive). If you don’t have data to work with, please let us know in time so that we can think about an alternative. We have plenty of tutorial data available, so this can be used to practice your data analysis skills.
Test your MATLAB and FieldTrip installation in advance
For the hands-on sessions we assume that you will work on your own laptop computer. To have a smooth experience - and to avoid having to spend precious debugging time during the hands-on sessions - we recommend that you test your MATLAB and FieldTrip installation in advance.
Getting started with the hands-on sessions
For the hands-on sessions we will use MATLAB R2021b, which is installed on the PCs in the instruction rooms. If you log in with the credentials that are provided for each of the course computers, you should start MATLAB using the Desktop shortcut. On the desktop there will also be a browser shortcut to this internet page.
To ensure that everything runs smoothly, we will work with a clean and well-tested version of FieldTrip that we have installed on all computers. Importantly, the tutorial data does not have to be downloaded on the PCs and has already been placed in the course accounts’ home directories. These home directories are mounted as the computer’s M-drive, and the FieldTrip code plus the necessary data are located in M:\toolkit2024. If you start MATLAB from the Desktop shortcut, FieldTrip will be automatically added to the MATLAB path, and you will be taken to the directory that contains the course data.
Please do not use another MATLAB version than R2021b. It should be available on all hands-on computers.
A recent copy of FieldTrip and the data have been preinstalled on the computer and you do not have to download anything. Also, it should NOT be necessary to execute the following lines of code. These are only needed if you DO NOT start the MATLAB from the Desktop shortcut. In other words, you will probably always want to start MATLAB from the Desktop shortcut.
cd M:\toolkit2024
restoredefaultpath
startup
The restoredefaultpath command clears your path, keeping only the official MATLAB toolboxes. The addpath statement adds the present working directory, i.e. the directory containing the FieldTrip main functions. The startup command runs the startup.m file in the toolkit2024 directory, which ensures that all required subdirectories are added to the path.
In general, please do NOT use the graphical path management tool from MATLAB. In this hands-on session we’ll manage the path from the command line, but in general you are much better off using the startup.m file than the path GUI.
Furthermore, please do NOT add FieldTrip with all subdirectories, subdirectories will be added automatically when needed, and only when needed (see this FAQ.
Code of conduct
Please spend a couple of minutes to have a look at our Code of Conduct to make sure we all are taking responsibility to look after each other and make sure we are contributing towards an inclusive and supportive community. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding it. All toolkit participants are responsible to follow the rules listed here, as well as making sure that everyone in the toolkit follows it.