%0 Journal Article
%T Functional Brain Imaging
%A K. Vessal
%J Iranian Journal of Radiology
%D 2005
%I Tehran University of Medical Sciences
%X Introduction & Background: The historical evolution of concepts of the mind has had a tremendous impact on human civilization. Aside from Smith¡¯s surgical papyrus, there exists practically no documentation down to the era of Hippocrates. While in Corpus, the seat of all sensations is put in the brain, there is an amazing regression, for many centuries thereafter notably influenced by Aristotle, to displace it to the heart. This erroneous diversion promulgated in De Anima with minor corrections by Galen, has per-petuated to our time when we say, for example, that we love something with our very hearts or ¡°knowing by heart¡± when we mean to memorize something. Avicenna challenged many of Aristotle¡¯s ideas in El-monnafs (psychology) section of Al Shafa, paving the road for the later European Renaissance. Cartesian choice of pineal body as the seat of soul in the first half of the 7th century was a fundamental departure from brain-soul dichotomy. It was followed by Gall¡¯s pseudo-science, phrenology, as the first attempt of brain mapping in ascribing ¡°mental faculties¡± to the speculative ¡°organs¡± of the brain. Brain mapping through Functional Brain Imaging has flourished ex-tensively in the past decades -starting from PET with later substitution by fMRI- as robust tools for interro-gating mysteries of the brain. With a surprising pace of development, Functional Brain Imaging heralds a welcome adjunct to the science of radiology in ex-ploring mind and human behavior. Given the multi-tude of appropriate MRI machines operating across the country, attention to this aspect of imaging can invigorate research in radiology and boost generation of knowledge in this rapidly growing field. Recent advances in MRI fast imaging, fMRI, as well as clini-cal and spectroscopic imaging with present clinical application and future trends are discussed.
%U http://journals.tums.ac.ir/PdfMed.aspx?pdf_med=/upload_files/pdf/2186.pdf&manuscript_id=2186