Neuroimage in Psychiatry - What Can we See?

Abstract

In the 20th century, scientists attempted to limitate the workings of the mind onto the brain by detailing its anatomy and physiology. The task of localizing function, however, has proven to be very difficult than initially presumed, with almoust all regions of the brain subserving a variety of processes and having only loose coupling of structure and function. As we know, the majority of neuropsychological tests and the brain capacities they tap lack brain regional specificity. This is a complex and sophisticated problem, that gets much worse in the brain that is compounded significantly by damage or disease. However, in the past two decades, neuroimaging has rekindled and renewed enthusiasm for unraveling brain function. Recent studies of cerebral image show “in vivo” what had already been proven in the laboratory: there are multiples neuroquimical changes in cortical and subcortical areas of the brain in psychiatric patients.

Amongst the many techniques and technologies that have been developed, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has proven to be one of the most exciting and perhaps the most used. It has permitted unprecedented access to the living brain. The authors propose to do a brief review on the late descoverys and studys that have been done with neuroimage.