Imaging neuroscience: Principles or maps?
Abstract
This article reviews some recent trends in imaging neuroscience. A distinction is made between making maps of functional responses in the brain and discerning the rules or principles that underlie their organization. After considering developments in the characterization of brain imaging data, several examples are presented that highlight the context-sensitive nature of neuronal responses that we measure. These contexts can be endogenous and physiological, reflecting the fact that each cortical area, or neuronal population, expresses its dynamics in the context of interactions with other areas. Conversely, these contexts can be experimental or psychological and can have a profound effect on the regional effects elicited. In this review we consider experimental designs and analytic strategies that go beyond cognitive subtraction and speculate on how functional imaging can be used to address both the details and principles underlying functional integration and specialization in the brain.
Footnotes
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↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed at: The Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom. e-mail: k.friston{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk.
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This paper was presented at a colloquium entitled “Neuroimaging of Human Brain Function,” organized by Michael Posner and Marcus E. Raichle, held May 29–31, 1997, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.
- ABBREVIATIONS:
- fMRI,
- functional magnetic resonance imaging;
- PET,
- positron emission tomography;
- SPM,
- statistical parametric map
- Copyright © 1998, The National Academy of Sciences
