Guest Presenter: Dr. KendrickKay (an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Minnesota)

Talk Title: What is the Natural Scenes fMRI Dataset, and what is it good for?

Abstract:Building quantitative models of brain function requires extensive, high-quality data. In this talk, I will describe a recently completed large-scale 7T fMRI dataset, termed the Natural Scenes Dataset (NSD). In NSD, whole-brain BOLD responses (1.8 mm, 1.6 s) were measured while each of 8 participants viewed 9,000-10,000 distinct color natural scenes (22,500-30,000 trials) over the course of 30-40 scan sessions. To optimally process these unique data, we developed several novel denoising and estimation techniques, which can be applied to other experiments to improve signal-to-noise ratio. I will provide previews of how we are using NSD to address specific scientific questions. Finally, I hope to seed discussion of big-picture issues and a broader consideration of the relevance of NSD (and other like-minded datasets) for advancing cognitive/systems/computational neuroscience.