Section on Functional Imaging Methods

The Section on Functional Imaging Methods is within the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition and the National Institute of Mental Health. Functional MRI is a technique that utilizes time series collection of rapidly-obtained magnetic resonance images that are sensitive to localized brain activation induced hemodynamic changes. The utility of Functional MRI (fMRI) has been increasing since it was discovered in 1991. The limits of the technique (spatial and temporal resolution, interpretability of the signal, and applications) are determined by imaging technology, experimental and processing methodology, and the variable and incompletely-determined relationship between neuronal activity and hemodynamic changes.

The work of SFIM is focused on pushing spatial and temporal resolution of fMRI as well as increasing its interpretability and ultimately the utility. This work roughly falls into four pillars:

Recent SFIM Publications

Sharif Kronemer, Victoria Gobo, Shruti Japee, Eli Merriam, Benjamin Osborne, Peter Bandettini, Tina Liu. Eye metrics are a marker of visual conscious awareness and neural processing in cerebral blindness. (2025) Communications Biology 8:1724

Sharif Kronemer, Burak Akin, A. Tyler Morgan, Laurentius Huber, Paul A. Taylor, Javier Gonzalez-Castillo, Daniel A. Handwerker, Peter A. Bandettini. The human brain mechanisms of afterimages: From networks to cortical layers. (2025) BioRXiv

Peter Bandettini. What are we missing? What are we assuming? The need to foster feature discovery tools to improve statistical models. (2025) Cerebral Cortex 35 (9)

Yoichi Miyawaki, Kenshu Koiso, Daniel A. Handwerker, Javier Gonzalez-Castillo, Laurentius Huber, Arman Khojandi, Yuhui Chai, Daniel Glen, Peter A. Bandettini. Rapid decoding of neural information representation from ultra-fast functional magnetic resonance imaging signals. (2025) BioRXiv

Chung (Kenny) Kan, Rüdiger Stirnberg, Marcela Montequin, Omer Faruk Gulban, Tyler Morgan, Peter Bandettini, Laurentius Huber. T1234: A distortion-matched structural scan solution to misregistration of high resolution fMRI data. (2025) Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 94 (2)

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