Functional magnetic resonance imaging: a window into the brain

Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has enabled us to look for the first time into the human brain in vivo, literally ‘to watch it while it works’. This has resulted in exciting insights into the spatial and temporal changes underlying a broad range of brain functions, such as how we see, feel, move, understand each other, and lay down memories. The technique is safe, allowing repeated examinations to probe time dependent changes such as those involved in learning. Functional MRI is also improving our understanding of a variety of brain pathologies. Some, such as the addictive behaviours of gambling or drug abuse, are without structural brain changes. In other cases in which there are clear structural changes, fMRI has shown that functional changes occur in widely distributed regions of the normal appearing brain. Understanding these changes and the adaptive potential they confer promises to guide rational approaches to improving rehabilitation strategies. Here we briefly review these and related applications of fMRI for better understanding of the healthy and diseased brain.