Abstract: Publisher Summary
This chapter focuses on functional imaging of the human brain. Functional brain imaging is designed to reveal regional brain activity while the person is engaged in a psychological task chosen to maintain the brain in a specific mode during the imaging procedure. Functional images change in a person depending on the task performed or the state of the brain such as awake, asleep, at rest, and problem solving and often reveal complex relationships between activation or deactivation in well-defined anatomic areas and specific cognitive processes. The interpretation of functional images depends on the psychological task or brain state engaged during the imaging, and the sophistication of the task is a major factor to be considered. Scans during two or more task conditions or states are compared to show the brain areas that differ in activity among the conditions. Much neuroimaging now uses structural MRI as the basis for individual or group data and superimposes (coregistration) functional data. New neuroimaging studies can use increasingly sophisticated research designs incorporating levels of cognitive ability, task strategy alternatives, easy and hard versions of tasks, and a variety of tasks to probe specific brain areas and systems.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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