The future of fMRI

Recent articles

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

Illustration of a toolbox with some tools replaced with lines of code.

New tools help make neuroimaging accessible to more researchers

A lack of programming experience can derail experimental aspirations. But custom software packages, web-based applications and video tutorials make functional MRI concepts easier to grasp.

By Andrew Jahn
5 March 2025 | 6 min listen
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

Who funds your basic neuroscience research? Help The Transmitter compile a list of funding sources

We want to hear from you about the sources of funding for your research.

By Claudia López Lloreda
28 March 2025 | 1 min read
University of Puerto Rico building.

The future of neuroscience research at U.S. minority-serving institutions is in danger

Cuts to federally funded programs present an existential crisis for the University of Puerto Rico’s rich neuroscience community and for research at minority-serving institutions everywhere.

By Carmen S. Maldonado-Vlaar
28 March 2025 | 5 min read
Astrocytes in a mouse brain.

Unexpected astrocyte gene flips image of brain’s ‘stalwart sentinels’

The genetic marker upends the accepted orientation of non-star-like astrocytes in the glia limitans superficialis.

By Lauren Schenkman
28 March 2025 | 5 min read