Functional brain imaging refers to any process used to take pictures of the human brain which, besides showing anatomical structure, also maps regions of varying neural activity during specific mental tasks. Such techniques must be able to produce pictures of soft tissue (traditional x-rays, for example, in addition to being a health risk, are more efficient at showing bone structure than soft tissues, such as muscle). Technological developments which have been taking place over the past 15-20 years have resulted in the more recent evolution of several relatively safe methods of soft-tissue imaging. The "functional" in functional brain imaging, of course, refers to the fact that the primary information received during the imaging process concerns which part (or parts) of the brain is active (or inactive) when a person performs a particular activity or is exposed to a certain type of stimulus. What makes this so remarkable, is that for the first time ever it possible to determine and even map brain activity in a way which is completely non-invasive physically. Some techniques do involve the intravenous injection of radioactive chemicals, however there are few, if any, side-effects and no surgery is necessary. Thus the brain activity of, for example, a student doing a math problem, can be observed directly without posing health risks or introducing additional variables into experimental results.
Better known functional imaging techniques include computerized tomography (an x-ray method, better known as a CT scan), positron emission tomography (PET), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (a variation of traditional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI). Others are variations and/or combinations of these and older methods of measuring brain activity, such as electro- and magnetoecephalography (EEG and MEG, respectively). Sometimes, the term computerized tomography is used more generally, to refer to the computer processes involved in creating images from data acquired through PET, MRI, or x-ray scans.
Currently, the two most popular functional imaging methods seem to be PET and fMRI. In particular, both have begun to play key roles in the study of mental disorders, changes in brain functioning due to aging, learning differences, and correlations between different "thought patterns" and factors such as gender and culture. For example, PET has allowed for the visual diagnoses of adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and fMRI, when interfaced with special software, can provide an inflated image of a brain which highlights localized activity during different language-related tasks. Before the development of PET and fMRI, neural functioning was studied mainly through the use of EEG and MEG. Both involve arrays of electrodes attached to specified positions on the skull, which record electrical impulses in the brain. Though useful in many ways, until very recently they have been inadequate for endeavors which require either a three dimensional viewpoint of the brain, or the determination of the region from which a particular signal originates. Now, use is being made of functional imaging methods which superimpose EEG and MEG maps onto PET or MRI images.
These are merely a few general examples of the exciting and revolutionary work being done in cognitive science through functional imaging. The following links provide more detailed technological, biological, and practical information on each imaging process listed below. The latter will focus on learning-related applications of functional imaging and their potential implications for the future of both education and cognitive neuroscience.
A positron is a subatomic particle, like an electron in size and behavior, only instead of having a negative electric charge it has a positive one. Since positrons and electrons are alike in every way other than the fact that their charges are exactly opposite, when two particles, one of each species, come in contact with one another they immediately annihilate/destroy one another. Energy is released from the collision in the form of two photons, or light particles, which fly off in opposite directions (180 degrees) from one another. An interaction of this sort can be located by radiation detectors placed opposite one another on either side of the collision area. When an electron-positron annihilation occurs such that the resulting photons are emitted in line with the detectors, they receive these photons, which are of equal energy, simultaneously (or very nearly so)--thus the detectors are referred to as coincidence detectors.
In Positron Emission Tomography (PET), the most highly evolved functional brain imaging technique, the subject/patient is intravenously injected with a radioactive substance called a tracer. Different tracers are used depending on the specific goal of the PET scan (the similarity between them being that they all emit positrons). Coincidence detectors are positioned around the skull. Positrons emitted from the tracer in the blood stream quickly collide with electrons in the nearby brain tissue and annihilate(Hugdahl, 1995). Since blood rushes to the regions of the brain which are being used at a given moment, substances carried in the blood stream naturally become concentrated in those areas as well. The detectors are able to locate changes in neural activity due to the accumulation of the radioactive substance in the brain tissue for a short period of time immediately after the tracer is administered (Raichle, 1994; Hugdahl, 1995). Thus a map of the active regions of a subject's brain can be made while they, for example, perform language-related tasks, or are exposed to some other sort of visual or auditory stimuli. In addition to determining which regions are active at a particular time, the actual brain chemistry involved in a certain type of activity can also be studied with PET by varying, as mentioned before, the type of radioactive tracer. A tracer which is radioactively labeled, but will be predictably utilized by the brain in the same way as a particular chemical which occurs there naturally can be used to take measurements relating to both which areas are actively taking up the compound and to what degrees. A prime example of this is the measurement of glucose levels in the brain; this is important for many reasons since glucose is the brain's primary metabolic energy source (Groves and Rebec, 1988). More generally, PET scans can provide measurements of changes in: regional blood flow (the circulation rate of blood in a region of the brain measured in milliliters per minute); blood volume (blood vessels in the brain can expand and contract in order to regulate the amount of blood in a region); glucose metabolism; oxygen metabolism; the metabolisms of various neurotransmitters in given regions of the brain (Raichle, 1994; Hugdahl, 1995; Kandel and Schwartz, ed., 1981). The latter three essentially refer to the levels of substances (i.e. glucose or oxygen) which provide energy in one way or another to an area of the brain for a distinct function.
Using computers, PET images are constructed from the radiation patterns received by the coincidence detectors of different planes (or "slices") of the brain (Groves and Rebec, 1988). These slices, when combined, provide a three dimensional perspective. Scans are first taken of the brain in a relatively inactive state—the control state. The subject then performs tasks or is provided with an external stimulus, and images are made of the brain in an active state. The control images are subtracted from the stimulated-state images in order to isolate the specific regions in which the brain activity has changed due to stimulation (Raichle, 1994). The result is a computerized image of the brain, color-coded to represent areas with different levels of activity (for example, yellow, red, and white typically indicate increasing levels of higher activity while blues and purples indicate lower levels). Those areas can then be associated with the mental functions involved in processing the type of information provided through the stimulus, or with the patients outward response. Images taken of multiple "normal" brains and averaged can be compared to images of a brain that works differently in some way. Thus the location of the atypical activity (or chemistry) related to those differences can be seen visually.
The human brain consumes approximately 20% of the oxygen taken in by the body. This is pretty amazing considering that one's brain accounts for only about 2% of one's total body weight (Chien, 1981). In fact, the brain requires more energy to operate than any other part of the human body. This energy is acquired mainly from oxygen and glucose in the blood stream. The level of oxygen and/or glucose provided to a region can be at least partially regulated through a change in either the blood flow rate (unit volume through a location per unit time), or one in the blood volume (which, for example, can be increased through an expansion of the blood vessels in that region). PET imaging is very useful for research centered around distinguishing between atypical and typical metabolic activity in the brain which can be associated with specific problems, such as an emotional or mental disorder, or with learning differences.
In PET processes concerned with monitoring changes in the blood flow to different parts of the brain, the radioactive isotope 15O (where the "superscript" on the left signifies the atomic number for this particular type of oxygen), in the form of radioactively "labeled" water (H215O), is generally used as a tracer (Hugdahl, 1995; Raichle, 1994). As the blood flow increases in active areas so as to provide an increased oxygen supply, the 15O is used up just as normal oxygen would be, meaning that more of it is pumped to and used by the active areas of the brain than the inactive ones. Therefore, more emission shows up in those areas on the PET scan. In glucose metabolism studies, the compound 18-F-flouro-2-deoxyglucose (18F-FDG) is often used (Hugdahl, 1995; Raichle, 1994). The important part here is the 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG), or radioactively labeled glucose (Pinel, 1990). As with oxygen, when the metabolism in a region increases, the 2-DG is used up more quickly by the active areas, the same as naturally occurring glucose (Pinel, 1990).
In summary, when a location in the brain is required for a specific task, the blood flow to that area increases in order to provide the necessary levels of oxygen and glucose. The result is that the tracer concentration, by default, increases as well, accumulating in the active neurons. Within a few seconds, the tracer molecules radiate. As mentioned earlier, positrons emitted from the tracer collide with electrons in the brain tissue, and annihilate with each other in order to produce two identical high-energy gamma rays (photons). In order to conserve momentum, these gamma particles are emitted in exact opposite directions, or rather they travel at a 180 degree angle from one another. Finally, they are absorbed simultaneously by the surrounding coincidence detectors, the relative count-concentrations being determined by the PET scan. The resulting data is then mapped, using a special 3-dimensional coordinate system, to the corresponding regions of the brain. This technology can be used not only to locate increased activity in the brain, but also to monitor levels of different neurotransmitters in regions of the brain under certain conditions (Hugdahl, 1995).
One drawback to this type of imaging is that a small cyclotron as well as chemistry facilities are necessary to run PET scans. This means the technology is less readily available and more costly than some other functional imaging techniques (Raichle, 1994). It is an especially useful method, however, in that it is able to monitor different metabolism levels in the brain, a task which cannot be completed using traditional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Computerized Tomography (CT).
[I plan to expand this section after discussing advantage/disadvantage issues with someone who actually uses this type of equipment, since my current sources aren't very detailed in this respect.]
PET has been actively used to visually examine conditions related to anxiety, attention, language processing, and mental imagery and perception. In particular, it has allowed the physiological study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition which seems to involve a glucose deficiency in regions of the brain associated with the control of attention (Serendip). PET has also been used in the study of dyslexia, a language-related disorder which most notably inhibits reading skills. Often, people who have dyslexia are also diagnosed with ADHD. Imaging studies have shown similar types of brain behavior related to both disorders. If you are interested in learning more about the use of PET and other imaging techniques in learning-related research, please visit our section on learning differences. For further reading and/or examples of PET images, the following texts and web-sites (which we have also used as references) are interesting:
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
First Things First: What is a Positron?
So, What Is PET?
Image Construction
A Deeper Look at PET
Advantages and Disadvantages
Learning-Related Applications of PET
References