9 CONCLUSION

Functional MRI is a powerful, noninvasive brain-imaging technology that sits squarely at the interface of domains such as physics, engineering, statistics, advanced signal processing, physiology, and neuroscience. It has the profound advantage of piggybacking on the thriving MRI scanner industry—allowing nearly every clinical MRI scanner to be used as a brain-function imaging device. Since its inception in 1991, fMRI has grown and spread explosively. Functional MRI now is performed by thousands of labs worldwide and has made a massive impact on the field of neuroscience.