For those new to the field of resting state fMRI, the large variety of approaches to functional connectivity analysis is highly confusing. This primer provides an introduction to the concepts and analysis decisions that need to be made at every step of the processing pipeline, starting from data acquisition through to interpretation of findings.
Dr Janine D. Bijsterbosch is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Analysis Group in the FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, specialising in resting-state analysis. She has worked in brain imaging since 2007, with a background in psychology and experience working in psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. Janine has considerable teaching experience, being the course organiser, lecturer and senior tutor on both the FMRIB Graduate Programme and the FSL Course.
Professor Stephen M. Smith is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford and founded the Analysis Group there in 1997. He is the co-founder of FSL (FMRIB Software Library, www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl) and has written many tools for analysis of structural, diffusion and functional data, with a recent emphasis on resting-state imaging. In 2007 Stephen received the Wiley Young Investigator Award from the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping.
Professor Christian F. Beckmann is a Professor of Statistics in Imaging Neuroscience at the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen and leads the Statistical Imaging Neurosciences group at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen. His research focuses on Independent Component Analysis in fMRI, utilising information theoretic principles for the development of imaging biomarkers, advanced diagnosis systems and understanding of the human brain. Christian has taught on the FSL Course since its inception in 2002 and in 2011 he received the Wiley Young Investigator Award from the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping.