Researchers that traditionally work with human subjects, especially patient populations, have been begun to
back-translate their work to animal models in order to better understand the neurophysiological sources of
the alterations observed with common neuroimaging techniques like fMRI or functional connectivity. This
symposium describes the advantages and challenges of translational and backtranslational research,
showcases some of the tools available for the work, and gives examples of successful translational and
backtranslational experiments. MRI-based neuroimaging methods are ideal translational tools, as their
noninvasive nature and adaptable spatial resolution allows very similar high quality data to be obtained in
both humans and small animals. We hope that the talks will encourage greater exploitation of the
manipulations available in animal models to better understand the alterations in brain activity and
connectivity that are often observed in neurological and psychiatric disorders.