Briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of functional magnetic resonance imaging.

A: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a technique to measure the change of blood oxygen content caused by the change or abnormality of physiological activities by using a magnetic resonance vibrator. Usually, the increase of blood oxygen content indicates the increase of blood flow into a certain tissue or functional area of the brain, indicating that the activity of the tissue or functional area is activated. In recent ten years, fMRl technology has been widely used in the field of cognitive neuroscience other than medical diagnosis, exploring the brain mechanism of human cognitive process and emotional activity. FMRI is a diagnostic and experimental research technique that is harmless to the brain. Using this technology, researchers studied the brain functional orientation of perception, attention, language and emotion, and revealed the neurophysiological basis of cognitive and emotional processes.

(1) Advantages:

① Non-invasive, and the same subject can participate in the experiment repeatedly; ② Functional and structural images can be provided at the same time, which is very important for the accurate location of the brain; ③ It has extremely high spatial resolution and extremely fast imaging speed; ④ There are many parameters for the experimenter to control freely.

(2) Insufficient:

① Low temporal resolution; ② The experimental environment is not suitable for claustrophobic patients; (3) The loud noise during scanning hinders its application in listening; ④ The system cost is high.

At present, a relatively perfect brain functional imaging tool combines functional magnetic resonance imaging with EEG. The high spatial resolution of magnetic resonance imaging and the high temporal resolution of EEG have produced a new generation of noninvasive brain functional imaging tools with high spatial and temporal resolution, which can be used to observe the dynamic process of the brain in real time.