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BY THOMAS YEO, NICOLE KUEK Professor Simon B. Eickhoff is the Director of the Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf and the director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7) at the Research Center Jülich. Simon is a leading cartographer of the human brain, and his team utilizes a wide range of methods to map the organizational principles of the human brain. We had the opportunity to chat with Simon before his keynote lecture in the upcoming 2018 OHBM Annual Meeting in Singapore.
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GUEST POST BY CHRIS CHAMBERS  Professor Chris Chambers, Cardiff University The biomedical sciences are facing a rising tide of concerns about transparency and reproducibility. Among the chief concerns are inadequate sample sizes, lack of sufficient detail in published method sections to enable replication, lack of direct replication itself (and notable failures when attempted), selective reporting of statistical analyses in order to generate desirable outcomes, suppression of negative results, lack of sharing of materials and data, and the presentation of exploratory outcomes as though they were hypothesis-driven. Collectively these problems threaten the reliability of biomedical science, theory generation, and the ability for basic science to be translated into clinical applications and other settings.
Human neuroimaging in many ways represents a perfect storm of these weaknesses, exacerbated by the fact that two of the main techniques, MRI and MEG, are extremely expensive compared with adjacent fields. Researchers using these methods face tremendous pressure to produce clear, positive, publishable results, usually in small samples. Since the first meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) over twenty years ago in Paris, the Organization has evolved from a primarily European and North American organization, to an international organization that draws members from over 50 countries worldwide (Figure 1).
However, the European and North American leadership and educational roles within the organization have been slower to undergo a similar evolution. This is perhaps most noticeable in the geographic distribution of Council, of which apart from very sparse representation from Australia and Cuba, has consisted of primarily Europeans and North Americans (Figure 2). The characteristics found in Council, are also seen in the chosen educational courses (Figure 3), while the symposia have slightly greater diversity (Figure 4). For some time now, intolerance at the political level has been propagated throughout the world. However, we as a scientific community subscribe to inclusivity from all cultures and nationalities, and value diversity. In this light, we would like to highlight some of the challenges faced by some of our international colleagues, some of their biggest achievements despite these challenges, as well as provide a platform to voice their opinions and concerns on scientific inclusion.
There are parts of the world that are far from our minds when considering brain-mapping research - Iran is certainly one of them. The last few decades have seen a massive Iranian exodus of highly trained individuals. As a result, this secluded country has produced a great number of researchers who now work and live abroad. In fact, many of us working in neuroimaging share frequent interactions with Iranian researchers and trainees, and these interactions have provided a glimpse into the state of science and education in Iran. I have come to understand that some of the top research-intensive universities in Iran in the field of brain mapping include Shahid Beheshti University, the University of Tehran, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences. When it comes to neuroimaging research, the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University and AmirKabir University figure prominently. By Elizabeth DuPre and Kirstie Whitaker This month we continued our Open Science Demo Call series by speaking to Tim van Mourik Eleftherios Garyfallidis and Malin Sandström about the communities they’re building and supporting to make everyone’s lives easier through better open source software tools. by Souad El Bassam and Nikola Stikov OHBM has members throughout the world. We used last year's meeting as an opportunity to interview some of them to find out about the international reach of OHBM. In our Spanish language video, you can learn about LABMAN and the way developing countries try to keep up with the growing cost of brain mapping research. Maria Bobes, the president of LABMAN, speaks to Manuel Hinojosa about the importance of involving more Latin American researchers in brain mapping and the crucial role of LABMAN in raising awareness of the challenges facing researchers in this area of research in Latin America. |
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