The Evolution of Psychiatric fMRI

       In order to understand the insight that fMRI-based research has provided in the world of neuropsychiatry, it is important to understand how the use of fMRI has shifted over the years into a more insightful means of collecting data. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures changes in blood flow in the brain that is correlated with brain activity. fMRI creates a map of the brain's activity by illuminating which parts of the brain are stimulated during the scan. Although fMRI can illuminate a great deal of information about neuroscience anatomy and neural networks, experimental research has pointed out many of its flaws. These flaws in the application of fMRI in neuropsychiatry have fueled the research of many with the desire to improve fMRI in a way that can be of great benefit in the clinical and diagnostic processes of psychiatry.        Introduced to the work of Caterina Gratton and her colleagues in our Neuroscience Seminar ...