ADVANCED APPLICATION OF MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING IN HUMAN BRAIN SCIENCE

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized the practical dema nds of clinical neurology, This technology promises now to advance neu rology in theoretical and applied realms of fundamental human brain sc ience, We emphasize here two domains in which these advances will occu r, The first is volumetric morphometry of the human brain, With MRI th e multiple levels of processing of the brain may be characterized in t erms of their absolute volumes and their relative sizes, perspectives indispensable for our understanding of the development and operation o f neural systems, Volumetric morphometry also promises substantial inc reases in the specificity and sensitivity of neurological diagnosis, p articularly where applied to disorders where structural abnormalities will be reflected only in volumetric abnormalities. The second directi on of advance considered here is application of MRI in cortical mappin g in support of cognitive neuroscience. In this application MRI provid es means to map at high resolution the distribution of subcomponents o f neural systems activated by behavioral paradigms, This line of inves tigation will carry forward rapidly our understanding of how the infor mation processing algorithms of the brain are mapped upon the coordina tes of the various gray matter structures of the brain, Among the prac tical consequences of this application will be a reasoned design of su rgical field in tumor and epilepsy surgery.