Functional MRI: Applications (Introduction)

The introduction of functional MRI spurred researchers everywhere to adopt the technique for a range of applications. Among the early adopters, of course, were researchers at the Martinos Center. In the immediate wake of the Belliveau and Kwong papers in late 1991 and early 1992, respectively, Center investigators started using fMRI to address a host of questions the answers to which had long eluded them. Countless other applications followed, including explorations of the mechanisms underlying a number of human behaviors. Taken together, the findings of these studies have begun to circumscribe the heretofore entirely esoteric question of what it is that makes us who we are.