fMRI identifies active brain regions well but is noisy and time-slow for auditory study.

Evidence

The anatomical structure of the living human brain can be mapped using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Functional MRI (fMRI) is also able to map the functional properties of the brain. fMRI records local changes in the metabolism of the brain that are related to neuronal activity. However, the temporal resolution of fMRI is in the order of only hundreds of milliseconds even at its best. fMRI scanners are also very noisy and therefore their use for studying the auditory system sets a special challenge. fMRI has, however, good spatial resolution and is well suited for identifying which brain areas are active. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 817

Categorization

• QUESTION: The noise of fMRI scanners as a confound for auditory studies is worth chasing — what workarounds exist, e.g. sparse sampling or acoustic dampening?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in applications of acoustic communication — the scanner noise itself is an acoustic stimulus problem researchers must engineer around.
• SEED: An essay angle: the irony that the loudest research instrument in cognitive science is used to study hearing — how researchers engineer silence into noisy machines.