Functional neuroimaging

Functional neuroimaging is a way that scientists can look inside your brain and see which parts of it are active when you think, feel or do things. It's like a camera that takes pictures of your brain while you're doing different tasks or just resting.

So, let's imagine you are playing a game on a computer, and scientists want to understand what is happening inside your brain while you do it. They will place you inside a big machine called an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner. This machine will take many pictures of your brain while you're playing the game, and it does not cause any pain, it's just a little bit noisy.

When you play your game, your brain is working hard to process information, and this creates some activity in your brain cells. The MRI scanner detects the changes that happen in the blood flow within the different parts of your brain that are doing the work. This is known as the "blood-oxygen-level dependent" signal, or BOLD. The scanner then converts the signals into images and displays them on a computer screen so that scientists can see which parts of your brain are active.

Functional neuroimaging provides a way for scientists to study the brain without having to open your skull, and they can see which parts of your brain are responsible for what you do, feel, and think. This can help doctors understand and treat brain disorders such as depression or Alzheimer's disease.

In summary, functional neuroimaging is like taking pictures of the brain to study how it works when we do different things, and it is done using a safe machine that detects changes in the blood flow within our brain cells while we do or think things.