Matlab in Biopsychology and Neuroscience
Dieser Kurs erfolgt auf Englisch.
Why Matlab?
Matlab is one of the most widely used computer programming languages in research. For psychologists and neuroscientists it is a versatile and increasingly useful tool for controlling advanced experiments and analyzing complex datasets, no matter whether you are interested in programming sensory detection or discrimination stimuli, measuring behavioral reaction times, quantifying movement kinematics (e.g. eye tracking), analyzing electrophysiological time series (e.g. EMG, EEG), developing neural models, conducting statistical tests, or visualizing brain imaging data (e.g. fMRI, MEG), etc.
The Course
The course will teach the basics of Matlab and introduce tools that are often used in Psychology and Neuroscience. You will learn the skills needed to understand existing Matlab code and to develop your own Matlab programs.
The course consists of two parts:
- a more theoretically-oriented lecture with practical examples (2h/week),
- a tutorial in which the weekly homework exercises will be discussed (2h/week).
In order to be able to follow the lecture contents throughout the course period, it will be mandatory that the participants invest significant time on the weekly exercises.
Here you can find instructions (German) for how to access the server that will allow you to use the Matlab software.
Note: The course will run for the first half of the semester (see Dates). The course will be followed-up by an associated practical course in Psychophysics (see below).
Who should attend?
Anyone who wants to get an introduction to Matlab.
The course is aimed at:
- 1st-year Masters students in Biology and Psychology,
- PhD students from the GGNB programs,
- Advanced Bachelor students with experience in empirical data collection and analysis (space permitting).
No prior computer programming experience is needed. Basic skills in statistics, math and data handling are helpful.
Pre-registration [M.Bio.372] – non-GGNB students only
Pre-registration will allow you to attend a preparatory meeting. Details about the course and the companion course Psychophysics (below) will be introduced during this preparatory meeting. Afterwards, you will have an opportunity to confirm your interest in participating in the course.
The number of participants in this course is limited and participation is only guaranteed after you receive a final confirmation of participation following the preparatory meeting.
Pre-registration for this course will be open and is accessible through the StudIP entry for the course.
Note: Registration via the course homepage does not replace FlexNow registration for those who are admitted to the course and who want to participate in the exam and receive credits for the course.
Registration [M.Bio.372] – non-GGNB students only
Participants who are enrolled in the programs MSc DNB, MSc MBB, MSc Psychologie, BSc Biologie, BSc Psychologie and who want to earn ETCS credits towards their master or bachelor program need to first sign up for the course in FlexNow, and then later also register for the exam via FlexNow. Participants of other bachelor or master programs need to get the course approved as a Schlüsselqualifikationsmodul (form available from the Prüfungsamt, signature from lecturer needed) before being able to register via FlexNow.
Participants of non-GGNB PhD programs or students from outside the Georg-August university who want to participate without ETCS credits announce their interest in exam participation to the lecturer by email; you can then receive a certificate (‘Schein’) upon successful exam participation.
Registration for GGNB students [Short Methods Course, UniVZ 340043]
PhD students of all GGNB programs can only be admitted to the course via the GGNB internal registration process. Participation in the exam is not mandatory for earning credits towards the Short Methods Course program, but students are welcome to participate. In this case, please indicate your interest to the lecturer by email.
Associated Course
After this Matlab course, in the second half of the semester, we will offer an associated course at the DPZ, in which you will be able to apply and intensify the learned skills. The course on Psychophysics by Prof. Stefan Treue will provide you with an opportunity to gather hands-on experience in handling and analyzing data that you collected in your own experiments.
Last update: 25.03.2024
Prof. Dr. Alexander Gail Leiter der Arbeitsgruppe Sensomotorik +49 551 3851-358 Kontakt
