
Postgraduate Seminars
The MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry have jointly established a seminar programme for all postgraduate students.
Cognition and the Brain Lectures will be held in Michaelmas and Lent Term, twice weekly (normally 3-5pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), in the Lecture Theatre at the CBU. For any assistance please contact Karen Webb Karen.Webb@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
Cognition and the Brain
Lectures will be held in Michaelmas Term, twice weekly (normally 3-5pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), in the Lecture Theatre at the CBU.
Date |
Lecturer |
Subject / title (To be confirmed) |
08-Oct-24 |
Matt Lambon Ralph |
Semantic cognition |
09-Oct-24 |
Alexandra Woolgar |
Brain mechanisms of flexible cognitive control |
15-Oct-24 |
Charlotte Garcia |
Basic Mechanisms of Auditory Perception Acoustically and with Cochlear Implants |
16-Oct-24 |
Tobias Goehring |
The sense of hearing: consequences of its loss and opportunities with AI & technology |
22-Oct-24 |
Rik Henson |
The cognitive neuroscience of human memory |
23-Oct-24 |
Matt Davis |
Computational cognitive neuroscience of speech understanding |
29-Oct-24 |
John Duncan |
Intelligence, executive function, and the brain |
30-Oct-24 |
Mike Anderson |
Memory Suppression |
05-Nov-24 |
Thomas Cope |
How do neuroscientific concepts of memory help in a clinical context? |
06-Nov-24 |
Duncan Astle |
Computational constructivism: learning about the brain by trying to build one |
12-Nov-24 |
Camilla Nord |
Computational psychiatry and brain-body interactions |
13-Nov-24 |
Tim Dalgleish |
Affective disorders |
19-Nov-24 |
Kate Baker |
Genomic Disorders and Cognitive Development* |
20-Nov-24 |
Tom Manly |
Neuropsychology and neuropsychological rehabilitation |
26-Nov-24 |
Kamila Jóźwik |
Cognitive computational neuroscience of vision: combining behaviour, neuroimaging, and biologically-inspired deep learning |
27-Nov-24 |
Tamar Makin |
Cortical reorganisation |
11-Dec-24 |
MCQ Exam |
Improving Scientific Practices in Cognitive Neuroscience
Lectures will be held in Michaelmas Term, weekly (10am-12pm on Wednesdays), in the Lecture Theatre at the CBU.
Date |
Lecturer |
Subject / title (To be confirmed) |
09-Oct-24 |
Helena Gellersen with Amy Orben |
Introduction |
16-Oct-24 |
Luisa Fassi |
Problematic Research practices |
Helena Gellersen |
Exposing fraud |
|
23-Oct-24 |
Amy Orben |
Journals, Publishing and Computational Reproducibility |
Gabriel Mackie |
PPI |
|
30-Oct-24 |
Luisa Fassi |
Pre-registration and Registered Reports |
Georgia Turner |
Being a scientist during the climate crisis |
|
06-Nov-24 |
Lukas Gunschera |
Robust Statistical methods |
13-Nov-24 |
Lukas Gunschera |
Computational reproducibility and transparency |
20-Nov-24 |
Sakshi Ghai |
Sample diversity |
Saskia Frisby |
Research culture |
|
27-Nov-24 |
Rik Henson |
Robust Neuroimaging |
Sophia Crüwell |
Guest lecture |
|
04-Dec-24 |
Helena Gellersen |
Final lecture of course |
Introduction to Neuroimaging Methods
Lectures will be held in Lent term, three times a week (10am-12pm and 2-4pm on Mondays and 10am-12pm on Tuesdays), in the Lecture Theatre at the CBU. For full information see https://imaging.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/methods/IntroductionNeuroimagingLectures
Date |
Lecturer |
Subject |
20-Jan-25 (am) |
Olaf Hauk |
A Field Day - Some Physics You May Find Useful |
20-Jan-25 (pm) |
Rik Henson |
Introduction to Statistics in Neuroimaging |
21-Jan-25 |
Moataz Assem |
Brain Anatomy for Cognitive Neuroscientists |
27-Jan-25 (am) |
Marta Correia |
MRI Physics I |
27-Jan-25 (pm) |
Marta Correia |
MRI Physics II |
28-Jan-25 |
Marta Correia |
Structural MRI |
03-Feb-25 (am) |
Maura Malpetti |
PET imaging |
03-Feb-25 (pm) |
Marta Correia |
Introduction to diffusion MRI |
04-Feb-25 |
Marta Correia |
Advanced Diffusion MRI |
Break |
||
17-Feb-25 (am) |
Dace Apšvalka |
fMRI: Introduction, Experimental design & Data |
17-Feb-25 (pm) |
Dace Apšvalka |
fMRI: Pre-processing & Analysis |
18-Feb-25 |
Dace Apšvalka |
fMRI: Practical demo |
24-Feb-25 (am) |
Olaf Hauk |
EEG/MEG I – Overview and pre- processing |
24-Feb-25 (pm) |
Olaf Hauk |
EEG/MEG II – Head modelling and source estimation |
25-Feb-25 |
Olaf Hauk |
EEG/MEG III – Time-frequency analysis and functional connectivity |
03-Mar-25 (am) |
Petar Raykov |
Functional connectivity in fMRI |
03-Mar-25 (pm) |
Rik Henson |
Effective Connectivity |
04-Mar-25 |
Rik Henson |
Brain Network Analysis |
10-Mar-25 (am) |
Daniel Mitchell |
MVPA and RSA |
10-Mar-25 (pm) |
Elizabeth Michael |
Brain Stimulation |
11-Mar-25 |
Jascha Achterberg |
Neural Network Modelling |
We advise you to discuss these with your supervisors and pay particular attention to any cancellation/non attendance fees mentioned to any courses you book. More training opportunities can be accessed through the Researcher Development Programme (RDP) which provides a suite of courses, workshops, and events to support research students from all disciplines across the University of Cambridge. This provision is intended to complement that of the Schools and Departments so that research students can develop the skills they need to be successful in their research in the short term and in whatever career they progress on to afterwards.
PhD students will be provided with a Training Logbook. Please keep this updated with all your supervisions and any other training/talks you may attend.
Need help with your stats? Then, book a visit to our Stats Clinic.
Dr Simon White is available to department members to discuss, support, and collaborate on statistical issues/analyses. This has two strands: directly supporting postgraduate students and potential statistical collaborators with all research groups.
This separation is designed so that support and advice can be targeted at postgraduate students. This statistical support will be available to all students across all sites and at all study points (i.e., any year).
Expectations
Support will take the form of guidance and advice to help the student direct statistical aspects of their research project, including identifying additional training needs (computational and statistical). Students can discuss high-level questions on research strategy, potential study design issues, and analysis plans.
This support is not used regularly for incremental analysis steps nor as surrogate supervision meetings.
There will be no expectation to develop new statistical methodologies or approaches, nor will any analysis be run for the student. As such, there is no expectation for formal recognition in the thesis/dissertation; however, an acknowledgement would be welcome. Any resulting publications should acknowledge the support (Dr White and this support are funded by the NIHR BRC Mental Health Theme).
Moving beyond the scope of this support
Suppose the scope moves beyond high-level advice or requires substantial/regular meetings. In that case, a discussion with the supervisory team (and potentially the Postgraduate Education Committee) will be necessary to establish the statistical needs and resources required by the student and their project.
Moving beyond this support strand may involve formal recognition within the thesis/dissertation team, a formal collaboration (to fund time attributed to the project), and authorship of research outputs.
Dr White has reserved one hour weekly for this support (plus preparation time). Meetings will be 30 or 60 minutes, depending on complexity, and will (typically) be at the Herchel Smith Building or Institute of Public Health on Wednesday or Friday afternoons or by Zoom. Supervisors are welcome to attend, or the meeting can be one-on-one (with the student responsible for reporting back to their supervisory team).
Supervisors or Students may arrange an appointment by emailing Dr White directly (sw539@cam.ac.uk).
Preparation
To ensure the meeting is productive, this Booking Form must be completed and submitted at least one week before the meeting. The form will provide background to the research project and current research issues. It may also be beneficial to attach a brief report (max 3 pages). However, pages of unannotated analysis output are not helpful—nor will they be read.
Suppose the meeting is to discuss a specific analysis. In that case, the student should bring the relevant analysis output to the meeting. There will be little time to run analyses on data during the conference.
Other practical talks and lectures
As you will soon realise or may have already realised, Cambridge has a never-ending supply of lectures, seminars, workshops and training sessions. You can participate in pretty much everything that the University offers, which can be a blessing and a hindrance at the same time. Here, we have tried to select the most appropriate opportunities for you. Please keep us posted with details of anything helpful so we can add this to the calendar and open the possibilities up to other students. Students should always consult with their supervisor if unsure which courses/talks may be best to attend.
Departmental Lunchtime Lectures (Psychiatry)
Dates: Every Thursday in Term
Time: 12:30– 1.30 pm
Venue: Herchel Smith Seminar Room or via ZOOM
Here, you can access some recordings of previous speaker interviews.
Video & Audio: "Department of Psychiatry" (cam.ac.UK)
Website: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/56022
Department of Psychiatry Talks Stream
Zangwill Club
Dates: Every Friday during Full Term
Time: 4.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Venue: Department of Psychology Lecture Theatre
Website: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/6342
The Department also hosts Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars and Social and Developmental Psychology Seminars. The MRC-Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit holds weekly seminars, the Chaucer Club, at the MRC-CBU on Chaucer Road on Thursdays throughout the year. International and national speakers present current research on a wide range of topics related to brain and cognition at these colloquia. Students may attend these seminars to supplement their postgraduate education in discussion with their supervisors.
Chaucer Club
Dates: Every Thursday during Full Term
Website: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/6772
Chaucer Club talks are currently taking place online on Thursdays at 2 pm. Attendance at live talks is restricted to MRC CBU staff, students, and the University of Cambridge academic community, including alums. Users must use a Zoom account registered to a *cam.ac.uk or *cantab.net email address.
How to Conduct Clinical Research
The How to Conduct Clinical Research event will be held on Monday 4th November as a hybrid event at the Herchel Smith Building - more details to follow by email soon.
Statistical Methods for Cognitive Psychologists
This is a course planned with the needs in mind of a graduate student starting as a PhD student at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences and related institutions. It will in addition be open to others e.g. research assistants, junior scientists, visitors. The presentation will be as fairly formal lectures, each aiming to outline a particular class of methods to give examples of it being applied to realistic situations to indicate how to implement it using software available at CBU. 3 All Lectures will take place on Thursdays from 11:00 – 12:00pm in the lecture theatre at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and are being given by Peter Watson Peter.Watson@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk who will welcome any feedback.
Cambridge Research Methods - Practical introduction to MATLAB Programming - Thu 30 Jan 2025