Functional neuroimaging of cognition

Neuroimaging has, in many respects, revolutionized the study of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuroscience. Early studies of brain-behavior relationships relied on a precise neurological examination as the basis for hypothesizing the site of brain damage that was responsible for a given behavioral syndrome. The advent of structural brain imaging, first with computed tomography (CT) and later with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), paved the way for more precise anatomical localization of the cognitive deficits that are manifest after brain injury. In recent years, functional neuroimaging, broadly defined as techniques that provide measures of brain activity, has further increased our ability to study the neural basis of behavior. The modern era of functional brain imaging was introduced with the use of positron emission tomography (PET). In more recent years, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has rapidly emerged as an extremely powerful technique with many advantages over PET for studying cognition. Thus, the principles underlying fMRI studies of cognition are the focus of this review.