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| Project Title | Parallel neuroimaging analysis: Using network analysis to understand the brain |
| Summary | The student will work with the Seattle Longitudinal Study and the Integrated Brain Imaging Center at the University of Washington. The student will help develop parallel pipelines that use network theory to understand connectivity between regions of the brain that change with normal aging. |
| Job Description | The student intern will work closely with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to conduct a mentored research project that will involve development of a parallel pipeline (a set of software programs) to use network theory to explore connectivity between regions of the brain. Functional connectivity, or the way parts of the brain interact with each other to perform tasks, is an important tool for understanding how the brain works and what processes may be changing with age. The Seattle Longitudinal Study is a long-running study of aging that has been conducted in Seattle since 1956. We are currently obtaining functional neuroimaging data on subjects who have been measured every seven years through adulthood to see how their cognitive abilities, health, and activities have changed – to see how their life history is related to their brain activity at rest and while remembering. There is a growing interest in general in describing and characterizing important brain systems, and network theory is one important tool we can use to do this. This work is part of a broader program of research on functional connectivity funded by the NIH. The student will be exploiting parallelism at many levels, including CUDA development, multithreading with shared memory, and clusters. A unique opportunity exists to participate in our collaboration with Cray, Inc. to demonstrate the completed application on the Cray XMT. The student will also have the opportunity to obtain general training in neuroimaging, through bi-monthly working groups on imaging techniques including functional connectivity, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging. Contribution to publications is highly encouraged. |
| Conditions/Qualifications | Programming ability is a must; C/C++ and Python is desirable. No background in neuroanatomy is necessary. Must reside in Seattle area. |
| Start Date | 06/01/2011 |
| End Date | 05/30/2012 |
| Location | Seattle Longitudinal Study and Integrated Brain Imaging Center University of Washington, Seattle, WA |
| Interns | Kameron Schadt
Sean Sharma
Zhengcheng Gu
mussie nigussie
Maya Reiter
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