MATLAB for Neuroscientists: An Introduction to Scientific Computing in Matlab - Rilegato

Wallisch, Pascal; Benayoun, Marc; Lusignan, Michael; Dickey, Adam S.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0123745519 ISBN 13: 9780123745514

Casa editrice: Academic Pr, 2008

Riassunto

This book is an introduction to MATLAB, the globally accepted standard for scientific computing, written specifically for students and researchers in neuroscience and related fields. It serves as the first comprehensive study manual and teaching resource for the use of MATLAB in the neurosciences and psychology. This book is unique in that it can be used to learn the entire empirical and experimental process including stimulus generation, experimental control, data collection, data analysis and modeling. Thus, a wide variety of computational problems can be addressed in a single programming environment. The aim is to empower users of MATLAB, whether they are beginners, advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students, by enabling them to design and implement their own analytical tools. The book will aid researchers and students in achieving the fluency required to meet the computational needs of neuroscience practitioners.
The book allows students and beginning scientists to become familiar with applications of MATLAB in neuroscience. It helps to close the gap between what is being done at the level of current research and what is being taught at the undergraduate level at institutions around the world.

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Informazioni sull?autore

Pascal Wallisch received his PhD from the University of Chicago, did postdoctoral work at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, and currently serves as a clinical assistant professor of Psychology at New York University. His research interests are at the intersection of Psychology and Neuroscience, specifically Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience. His current work focuses on motion perception, autism and the appraisal of film.

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Matlab is the accepted standard for scientific computing, used globally in virtually all Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology laboratories. For instance, SPM, the most used software for the analysis and manipulation of fMRI images in research and clinical practice is fully programmed in matlab, and its use of the possibility to allow for sophisticated software modules to be freely added to the software has established it as the by far dominant software in the field. Many universities now offer, or are beginning to offer matlab introductory courses in their neuroscience and psychology programs. Nevertheless, so far there hasn't been a textbook specific to this market, and the use of the plethora of existing engineering focused Matlab textbooks is notoriously difficult for teaching the package in those environments.

This is the first comprehensive teaching resource and textbook for the teaching of Matlab in the Neurosciences and in Psychology. Matlab is unique in that it can be used to learn the entire empirical and experimental process, including stimulus generation, experimental control, data collection, data analysis and modeling. Thus a wide variety of computational problems can be addressed in a single programming environment. The idea is to empower advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students by allowing them to design and implement their own analytical tools. As students advance in their research careers, they will have achieved the fluency required to understand and adapt more specialized tools as opposed to treating them as "black boxes".

Virtually all computational approaches in the book are covered by using genuine experimental data that are either collected as part of the lab project or were collected in the labs of the authors, providing the casual student with the look and feel of real data. In some rare cases, published data from classical papers are used to illustrate important concepts, giving students a computational understanding of critically important research.

The ability to effectively use computers in research is necessary in an academic environment that is increasingly focused on quantitative issues. Matlab represents an ideal language of scientific computing. It is based on powerful linear algebra structures which lend themselves to empirical problems on the one hand, while at the same time allowing the student to make rapid problem-oriented progress (particularly in terms of visualization of data points) without having to lose focus by worrying too much about memory allocation and other "plumbing" minutiae as would be required in other, more low-level programming languages such as C or C++.

Currently, there are several books that provide introductions to Matlab that are either too generic and fundamental or too irrelevant for neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists who typically face a very circumscribed range of problems in data collection, data analysis and signal processing. Some non-book tutorials and primers that are in use in the community are typically out of date. Matlab versions are usually not backwards compatible. Many commands and functions used in older tutorials and primers, such as "flops" won't work in current versions of Matlab, necessitating a book that is timely and up-to-date.

The complete lack of a relevant resource in this area, combined with a clearly felt need for such a text provided the primary and initial impetus for this project.

The authors provide such a dearly needed resource adapting and pooling materials that developed for and used in highly rated courses involving the use of Matlab in Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Two co-authors (PW and NH) have presented their respective work on teaching Matlab at national meetings and two of the co-authors (PW and MB) were awarded the coveted University of Chicago's Booth Prize for excellence in teaching these courses. (http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/070524/boothprize.shtml ).

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Academic Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0123745519
• ISBN 13: 9780123745514
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 384
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile