{"id":413,"date":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-04T16:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:11:14","slug":"brain-imaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"Brain Imaging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Brain imaging is generally divided into two categories: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"6px; color: #ffd700;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">structural imaging<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"6px; color: #ffd700;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">functional imaging. <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The purpose of structural imaging is to visualize the various structures of the brain and any physical abnormalities that may affect them (such as tumors, bleeding, blood clots, or birth deformities).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The purpose of functional imaging is to better understand the various structures of the human brain, by measuring activity in a brain part while it performs certain tasks. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Both are used to examine the anatomy and functioning of a particular area of the brain in a particular individual.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The following links offer brief descriptions of structural and functional imaging methods most commonly used today.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 410px; height: 180px;\" border=\"1\" width=\"410\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Structural Imaging Methods<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Functional Imaging Methods<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"6px; color: #ffd700;\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#ctscan#ctscan\"><strong>Computerized Tomography (CT)<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#irm#irm\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#smt#smt\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#eeg#eeg\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Electroencephalography (EEG)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#irmf#irmf\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#tep#tep\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Positron Emission Tomography (PET)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><a style=\"color: #ffd700;\" href=\"http:\/\/thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu13.html#meg#meg\"><span style=\"2px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Magnetoencephalography (MEG)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">When resting neurons become active, the blood flow to them increases. Since active neurons consume no more oxygen than at rest, changes in oxygen levels of their nearby blood vessels, can be detected. fMRI is the tool for that. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 358px; height: 286px;\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/4-2011-pics\/connectome.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffd700;\"><span style=\"6px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Human Connectome<br \/>\n\u22483 billion x billion connections?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"2px;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><a href=\"?p=414\"><span style=\"color: #ffd700;\">read more &#8230;<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brain imaging is generally divided into two categories: structural imaging functional imaging. The purpose of structural imaging is to visualize the various structures of the brain and any physical abnormalities that may affect them (such as tumors, bleeding, blood clots, or birth deformities). The purpose of functional imaging is to better understand the various structures&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9269,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/9269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutyou.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}