Exploring the Limitations of fMRI Brain Scanning

🧠 Functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity through blood flow, but there is a lag between neuronal activity and blood flow.

📸 The MRI machine takes scans a couple of seconds apart, which may not provide enough detail for events happening within milliseconds.

👁️ fMRI is suitable for studying vision because the neural events involved in understanding a new scene occur within a fraction of a second.

🧠 Functional MRI (fMRI) has limitations in resolving fast brain activity in the order of tens of milliseconds.

⏱️ To overcome this limitation, other methods like behavioral studies and scalp electrodes can be used to gather precise timing information.

🧲 Combining fMRI with magnetoencephalography (MEG), which detects magnetic fields, allows for simultaneous measurement of electrical and magnetic activity in the brain with good timing information.

🧠 fMRI Brain Scanning can provide detailed information about brain activity.

⏱️ There are limitations in combining spatial and temporal resolution in fMRI scanning.

🤔 fMRI Brain Scanning requires some guesswork when trying to combine spatial and temporal information.