The Problem with fMRI

An article on ideas.TED.com discusses recent research which highlights a major flaw with fMRI. If the results of this research are correct, it could have a significant impact on our understanding of the human brain and over 40,000 studies that have used fMRI scanners since the early 1990s.

The problem is relatively simple: the software that sifts through the fMRI images has a tendency to suggest differences in brain activity which does not exist. A rather amusing example in the literature reported brain activity in a dead salmon fish, demonstrating how fMRI scanners can infer activity from nothing.

To read this rather interesting and alarming article, click here.

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