Functional MRI in Radiology-A Personal Review

Abstract

We, here, provide a personal review article on the development of a functional MRI in the radiology departments of two German university medicine units. Although the international community for human brain mapping has met since 1995, the researchers fascinated by human brain function are still young and innovative. However, the impact of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on prognosis and treatment decisions is restricted, even though standardized methods have been developed. The tradeoff between the groundbreaking studies on brain function and the attempt to provide reliable biomarkers for clinical decisions is large. By describing some historical developments in the field of fMRI, from a personal view, the rise of this method in clinical neuroscience during the last 25 years might be understandable. We aim to provide some background for (a) the historical developments of fMRI, (b) the establishment of two research units for fMRI in the departments of radiology in Germany, and (c) a description of some contributions within the selected fields of systems neuroscience, clinical neurology, and behavioral psychology.

Keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging; history of fMRI; radiology in Germany; structural MRI.

Figure 1

Experimental settings for the presentation of stimuli in the functional MRI scanner. Left top: writing table for fMRI investigations with a doubled-mirror system affixed above the head coil; right top: sound presentation system; left bottom: pneumatic stimulation system; right bottom: pain stimulation devices for thermal and pressure pain stimulation.

Figure 2

Control of motor performance during fMRI tasks. Left top: three possibilities to control hand motor activity: pneumatic ball, coupled with a pressure measurement device; glove, commercially distributed for virtual reality environments and suitable for MRI; finger sequence control keyboard. Right top: development with an individual splint for controlling occlusal pressure and frequency (see plot middle right) with the Varioport device (Varioport; Stuttgart; middle left). Bottom: control of swallowing by a pressure cushion combined with the Varioport device. Skin conductance response (SCR) can be measured with Brain Vision Analyzer 2.0 (Brain Products, Gilching, Germany; bottom right).