A brief history of human brain mapping

Abstract

Human functional brain mapping as we presently know it began when the experimental strategies of cognitive psychology were combined with modern brain-imaging techniques (first positron emission tomography and then functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine how brain function supports mental activities. This marriage of disciplines and techniques galvanized the field of cognitive neuroscience, which has rapidly expanded to include a broad range of the social sciences in addition to basic scientists interested in the neurophysiology, cell biology and genetics of the imaging signals. Although much of this work has transpired over the past couple of decades, its roots can be traced back more than a century.