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Event-related fMRI in cognition.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Huettel, SA
Published in: NeuroImage
August 2012

A primary advantage of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) over other techniques in neuroscience is its flexibility. Researchers have used fMRI to study a remarkable diversity of topics, from basic processes of perception and memory, to the complex mechanisms of economic decision making and moral cognition. The chief contributor to this experimental flexibility-indeed, to the growth of fMRI itself-has been the development of event-related experimental designs and associated analyses. The core idea of an event-related design, as first articulated in the late 1990s, is the separation of cognitive processes into discrete points in time (i.e., "events") allowing differentiation of their associated fMRI signals. By modeling brain function as a series of transient changes, rather than as an ongoing state, event-related fMRI allowed researchers to create much more complex paradigms and more dynamic analysis methods. Yet, this flexibility came with a cost. As the complexity of experimental designs increased, fMRI analyses became increasingly abstracted from the original data, which in turn has had consequences both positive (e.g., greater use of model-based fMRI) and negative (e.g., fewer articles plot the timing of activation). And, as event-related methods have become ubiquitous, they no longer represent a distinct category of fMRI research. In a real sense, event-related fMRI has now become, simply, fMRI.

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Published In

NeuroImage

DOI

EISSN

1095-9572

ISSN

1053-8119

Publication Date

August 2012

Volume

62

Issue

2

Start / End Page

1152 / 1156

Related Subject Headings

  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • History, 21st Century
  • History, 20th Century
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Cognition
  • Brain Mapping
  • 42 Health sciences
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
 

Citation

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Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
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Huettel, S. A. (2012). Event-related fMRI in cognition. NeuroImage, 62(2), 1152–1156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.113
Huettel, Scott A. “Event-related fMRI in cognition.NeuroImage 62, no. 2 (August 2012): 1152–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.113.
Huettel SA. Event-related fMRI in cognition. NeuroImage. 2012 Aug;62(2):1152–6.
Huettel, Scott A. “Event-related fMRI in cognition.NeuroImage, vol. 62, no. 2, Aug. 2012, pp. 1152–56. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.113.
Huettel SA. Event-related fMRI in cognition. NeuroImage. 2012 Aug;62(2):1152–1156.
Journal cover image

Published In

NeuroImage

DOI

EISSN

1095-9572

ISSN

1053-8119

Publication Date

August 2012

Volume

62

Issue

2

Start / End Page

1152 / 1156

Related Subject Headings

  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • History, 21st Century
  • History, 20th Century
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Cognition
  • Brain Mapping
  • 42 Health sciences
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences