Insight into the human brain: Advanced researches by an fMRI

Abstract

In 1980, Prof. Per Roland in Stockholm succeeded in visualization of the human brain activity by majoring regional cerebral blood flow, and this technique have developed afterwards into Positron Emission Tomography (PET) studies. For the PET research, however, incidental facilities such as a radioisotope facility and a cyclotron are needed; only few groups could proceed the research. In the nineties, new functional brain imaging technique using MRI (fMRI) has developed and a large number of researchers came to engage in functional brain imaging of human. The fMRI research is relatively easy to conduct and has many advantages as compared with other imaging methods. However, there are also many issues to be considered to get sophisticated results. In this review, I introduce the techniques of fMRI and discuss the possibility of fMRI study in the dental research field based on our preliminary data.