Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging - fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a technique for measuring brain activity. It
works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural
activity – when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and to meet this increased
demand blood flow increases to the active area. fMRI can be used to produce activation maps
showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process.
The development of FMRI in the 1990s, generally credited to Seiji Ogawa and Ken Kwong, is the
latest in the long line of innovations, including positron emission tomography (PET) and near
infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which use blood flow and oxygen metabolism to infer brain activity.
As a brain imaging technique fMRI has several significant advantages:

1. It is non-invasive and doesn’t involve radiation, making it safe for the subject;
2. It has excellent spatial and good temporal resolution;
3. It is easy for the experimenter to use.

The attractions of fMRI have made it a popular tool for imaging normal brain function –
especially for psychologists. Over the last decade it has provided new insight into the investigation
of language, learning and emotion, to name but a few areas of research. fMRI is also being applied
in clinical and commercial settings.

(Source: http://psychcentral.com)

Positron Emission Tomography – PET

A brain Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test of the brain. It uses a
radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease or injury in the brain. Namely, PET uses
trace amounts of short-lived radioactive material to map functional processes in the brain. When
the material undergoes radioactive decay a positron is emitted, which can be picked up by the
detector. Areas of high radioactivity are associated with brain activity.
PET techniques involve intravenously injecting different short-lived radioactive agents and then
imaging people in a specialized detector system to examine biochemical or physiological
processes involved in cerebral blood flow and metabolism.

(Sources: http://psychcentral.com and Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2009 , p. 1652)

Electroencephalography – EEG

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the measurement of the electrical activity of the brain by

recording from electrodes placed on the scalp. The resulting traces are known as an
electroencephalogram (EEG) and represent an electrical signal from a large number of neurons.
EEGs are frequently used in experimentation because the process is non-invasive to the
research subject. The EEG is capable of detecting changes in electrical activity in the brain on a
millisecond-level. It is one of the few techniques available that has such high temporal resolution.

(Source: http://psychcentral.com)

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a technique for recording brain electrical activity from the
human (or animal) scalp for research and diagnostic purposes. The term “electroencephalogram”
means the sample of the scalp record.
 Electroencephalography is applied in a broad field of noninvasive studies of brain activity.
Having as well as magnetoencephalography the highest time resolution among the brain imaging
techniques, the EEG recordings are the most effective for tracking the rapid changes of the brain
functional states.

(Source: Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2009 , p. 1067)

Magnetoencephalography – MEG

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging technique used to measure the magnetic fields

produced by electrical activity in the brain via extremely sensitive devices known as SQUIDs
(superconducting quantum interference devices). These measurements are commonly used in both
research and clinical settings. There are many uses for the MEG, including assisting researchers in
determining the function of various parts of the brain, neurofeedback, and others.

(Source: http://psychcentral.com)

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) encompasses a family of non-contact, non-invasive techniques

for detecting the magnetic field generated by the electrical activity of the brain, for analyzing this
MEG signal and for using the results to study brain function.
The overall purpose of MEG is to extract estimates of the spatiotemporal patterns of electrical
activity in the brain from the measured magnetic field outside the head. The electrical activity in
the brain is a manifestation of collective neuronal activity and to a large extent it is the currency of
brain function. The estimates of brain activity derived from MEG can therefore be used to study
mechanisms and processes that support normal brain function in humans and help us understand
why, when and how they fail.
Brain function is expressed through electrical activity within and between neurons. The same
neuronal generators responsible for the generation of the MEG signal are also responsible for
changes in the electrical potential on the scalp that can also be measured noninvasively as the
Electroencephalogram (EEG) by attaching electrodes to the scalp. The well-understood laws of
electromagnetism define how electric currents in the brain generate EEG and MEG signals.
MEG is a completely non-invasive method. With appropriate analysis methods it can provide
simultaneously accurate localization of different brain regions and exceptional temporal
resolution. The MEG signal depends weakly on the conductivity changes in the brain and simple
models can provide accurate estimates of the magnetic field generated by a source in the brain.

(Source: Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2009 , pp. 2225-2228)