Progress in understanding functional imaging signals

摘要

More than a century ago, Roy and Sherrington observed that a change in regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) could reflect neural activity. This concept is a basis for modern functional brain imaging technologies including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), intrinsic optical imaging, and near infrared optical tomography. These methods have been extensively used to map various brain functions in humans and animals on a spatial scale of 50 micrometers to a few centimeters.