Developing a method for imaging inside of human body that compromises generality, accuracy and execution speed has been a great issue for the brain science for the last decades. There are many methods imaging structure such as CT, PET, EEG, MEG, fMRI. Recent years have seen impressive improvements in fMRI, and it seems that fMRI is gaining popularity over other methods. Becoming a popular tool for investigations into the neural correlates of cognitive activity and other research, the number of papers which used this technique are increasing: 5,320 papers in 2000, 13,600 papers in 2005 and 28,500 papers in 2010. In this essay, I will focus on whether fMRI satisfies the criteria I suggest and discuss fMRIs strengths and limitations. Functional
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First, Spatial resolution of fMRI refers to how well it discriminates between nearby locations. fMRI has a great capacity to discriminate between nearby locations from millimeters to centimeters, and for this reason can identify Brodmann areas, subcortical nuclei and hippocampal subfields. Its sensitivity is enough to detect transient changes in deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration which mean the presentation of activate neuron. It has an excellent spatial resolution than any other brain imaging method and can detect a specific signal in an exact area. Second, fMRI offers much better temporal resolution than PET. While PET takes seconds to minutes, fMRI takes just a few seconds. Third, a development of an event-related method for fMRI was a highly significant advance, as it enabled randomize trials that could not be used in the early days of fMRI and allowed researchers to compare result images with the activation patterns responses to the same events. Fourth, fMRI Identifies network of regions associated with a task. Using this property, usual fMRI experiment measures the correlation between a stimulus and the fMRI response in a region. Fifth, fMRI can detect neural activity non-invasively in deep inside of the brain without risks of ionizing radiation like other scanning methods …show more content…
The ‘Non-invasiveness’ of fMRI makes people to use it in research field and further, in real life. fMRI has poor temporal resolution due to the fact that fMRI use indirect signal. However, it has been reported that fMRI can find neuronal interactions at the milliseconds in limited condition. After inventing fMRI, it has made many improvements in brain science although there are some limitations, especially it allows people to do not only research but also clinical uses such as early diagnosis of strokes. Also, modern Imaging techniques allow the use of combined designs that have both EEG and fMRI which allows to combine strength in two methods: high temporal resolution of EEG and high spatial resolution of fMRI. Moreover, the spatial resolution is developing by development of computer and strong electromagnet. I believe that fMRI which is already been a great method to make neural image will make human life better when it is used in BCI and any other
First, Spatial resolution of fMRI refers to how well it discriminates between nearby locations. fMRI has a great capacity to discriminate between nearby locations from millimeters to centimeters, and for this reason can identify Brodmann areas, subcortical nuclei and hippocampal subfields. Its sensitivity is enough to detect transient changes in deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration which mean the presentation of activate neuron. It has an excellent spatial resolution than any other brain imaging method and can detect a specific signal in an exact area. Second, fMRI offers much better temporal resolution than PET. While PET takes seconds to minutes, fMRI takes just a few seconds. Third, a development of an event-related method for fMRI was a highly significant advance, as it enabled randomize trials that could not be used in the early days of fMRI and allowed researchers to compare result images with the activation patterns responses to the same events. Fourth, fMRI Identifies network of regions associated with a task. Using this property, usual fMRI experiment measures the correlation between a stimulus and the fMRI response in a region. Fifth, fMRI can detect neural activity non-invasively in deep inside of the brain without risks of ionizing radiation like other scanning methods …show more content…
The ‘Non-invasiveness’ of fMRI makes people to use it in research field and further, in real life. fMRI has poor temporal resolution due to the fact that fMRI use indirect signal. However, it has been reported that fMRI can find neuronal interactions at the milliseconds in limited condition. After inventing fMRI, it has made many improvements in brain science although there are some limitations, especially it allows people to do not only research but also clinical uses such as early diagnosis of strokes. Also, modern Imaging techniques allow the use of combined designs that have both EEG and fMRI which allows to combine strength in two methods: high temporal resolution of EEG and high spatial resolution of fMRI. Moreover, the spatial resolution is developing by development of computer and strong electromagnet. I believe that fMRI which is already been a great method to make neural image will make human life better when it is used in BCI and any other