fMRI

Recent articles

Cognitive neuroscientist Nick Turk-Browne helps an infant into an fMRI machine.

What infant fMRI is revealing about the developing mind

Cognitive neuroscientists have finally clocked how to perform task-based functional MRI experiments in awake babies—long known for their inability to lie still or take direction. Next, they aim to watch cognition take shape and settle a debate about our earliest memories—with one group publishing a big clue today.

By Calli McMurray
20 March 2025 | 12 min read
Composite of brain imaging techniques.

Thanks to new technologies, neuroscientists have more direct access to the human brain than ever before

Model systems continue to offer us tremendous insight, but it’s time for basic researchers to train their sights on the human brain. If I were starting my career today, I would focus on human neurobiology.

By Joshua R. Sanes
17 March 2025 | 7 min read
Computer-generated images of the human brain showing functional networks.

Cell ‘fingerprints’ identify distinct cortical networks

These networks align with different assemblages of cells, a finding that could reveal how cellular diversity influences brain function, according to a new study.

By Holly Barker
28 February 2025 | 4 min read
Illustration of cranes attempting to assemble a structure out of very small black squares.

In case you missed it: Standout news stories from 2024

These five stories—on the pregnant brain, a failed imaging method and more—top our list of some of the most notable neuroscience research findings this year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Research image of fMRI scans on a black background.

Timing tweak turns trashed fMRI scans into treasure

Leveraging start-up “dummy scans,” which are typically discarded in imaging analyses, can shorten an experiment’s length and make data collection more efficient, a new study reveals.

By Angie Voyles Askham
30 October 2024 | 6 min listen
Black-and-white headshots of Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Tsao.

2024 Kavli Prize awarded for research on face-selective brain areas

Studies by Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Tsao revealed how the brains of humans and other primates identify faces and helped establish an understanding of brain specialization.

By Olivia Gieger
12 June 2024 | 4 min read
Research image of brain activity

Connectivity takes U-turn in people with rare autism-linked mutations

Patterns of brain connectivity shift during puberty in people with deletion of the 22q11.2 chromosomal region.

By Holly Barker
30 May 2024 | 4 min read
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
Illustrated portrait of Emily Finn.

Brain connectivity and letting the data speak with Emily Finn

The Dartmouth College researcher talks about her quest to understand behavior and doing neuroscience “in the woods.”

By Brady Huggett
1 May 2024 | 70 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

Explore more from The Transmitter

NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Acting NIH director dismisses four neuroscientists from advisory boards

The letters they received this week did not include a reason for their termination.

By Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham
25 March 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of protein synthesis in mice.

NIH neurodevelopmental assessment system now available as iPad app

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 24 March.

By Jill Adams
25 March 2025 | 2 min read
Illustration of a face covered by several black rectangles.

Keep sex as a biological variable: Don’t let NIH upheaval turn back the clock on scientific rigor

Even in the absence of any formal instruction to do so, we should continue to hold our ourselves and our neuroscience colleagues accountable for SABV practices.

By Rebecca Shansky
25 March 2025 | 7 min read