The future of fMRI

Recent articles

This series of essays explores new developments and challenges in human brain imaging.

A hand holds multi-colored cubes.

Should we use the computational or the network approach to analyze functional brain-imaging data—why not both?

Emerging methods make it possible to combine the two tactics from opposite ends of the analytic spectrum, enabling scientists to have their cake and eat it too.

By Mac Shine
13 May 2024 | 7 min listen
Illustration of a hand reaching out to adjust a dial that sits in the middle of several images depicting brain activity and various behaviors.

To improve big data, we need small-scale human imaging studies

By insisting that every brain-behavior association study include hundreds or even thousands of participants, we risk stifling innovation. Smaller studies are essential to test new scanning paradigms.

By Emily S. Finn
15 April 2024 | 7 min read
An illustration of a mouse sitting in an armchair next to a framed picture of mouse brains

To make fMRI more clinically useful, we need to really get BOLD

A better understanding of the blood oxygen level dependent, or BOLD, signal requires more support for multimodal imaging studies.

By Evelyn Lake
22 January 2024 | 6 min read

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Explore more from The Transmitter

Grid of human brain scans.

Dose, scan, repeat: Tracking the neurological effects of oral contraceptives

We know little about how the brain responds to oral contraceptives, despite their widespread use. I am committed to changing that: I scanned my brain 75 times over the course of a year and plan to make my data openly available.

By Carina Heller
20 January 2025 | 7 min read
Colorful illustration of a latticework of proteins.

Cracking the code of the extracellular matrix

Despite evidence for a role in plasticity and other crucial functions, many neuroscientists still view these proteins as “brain goop.” The field needs technical advances and a shift in scientific thinking to move beyond this outdated perspective.

By Anna Victoria Molofsky
17 January 2025 | 5 min read
A repeated DNA strand extends farther from the left side of the image with each iteration.

Huntington’s disease gene variants past a certain size poison select cells

The findings—providing “the next step in the whole pathway”—help explain the disease’s late onset and offer hope that it has an extended therapeutic window.

By Angie Voyles Askham
16 January 2025 | 6 min read