fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive way of indirectly measuring neural activity in the human brain. Functional MRI uses scanners similar to those that are used in a hospital setting to produce anatomical images of the brain. Instead of just taking anatomical images, additional hardware can be used to measure changes in blood flow throughout the brain, revealing which brain areas are neurally active. By asking experimental subjects to perform tasks in a controlled fashion while their brain activity is measured, cognitive neuroscientists can make inferences about the relationship of mental processes and brain activity.

ICN faculty members Jon Driver and Geraint Rees are Principal Investigators, and Dr. Hugo Critchley an Honorary Principal Investigator at the Functional Imaging Laboratory (FIL), which is part of the Institute of Neurology and located next door to the ICN. Their groups work extensively on neuroimaging studies using fMRI and MEG. All other ICN groups contain researchers engaged in extensive, active and productive scientific collaborations with the FIL.

The Functional Imaging Laboratory (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk) houses 1.5T Siemens Sonata and 3.0T Siemens Allegra MRI scanners, and will be home to a 128-channel MEG system in 2005. All systems are equipped with state-of-the-art visual, auditory and somatosensory stimulation facilities, together with response recording and eye tracking devices. Multi-modality acquisition of EEG and fMRI, or TMS and fMRI data is possible with both scanners.

In addition to collaboration with the FIL, members of the ICN also collaborate with centres elsewhere in London and the UK (Oxford; http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/, Cambridge; http://www.wbic.cam.ac.uk/; and Imperial College).

This page last modified 17 November, 2011 by [ICN Web Team]

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