Brain Awareness Week: Jessica Cloud ’18 Lecture—Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) at Sarah Lawrence College: An Introduction to Student-Accessible fMRI Techniques and Methodologies

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is an essential methodology in the field of psychology and neurobiology, allowing researchers to visualize distinct neural correlates of behaviors and the ways in which neuronal networks interact during tasks. For undergraduates, however, this technology is often inaccessible, both in terms of understanding the techniques behind fMRI imaging and in utilizing fMRI images for research. Efforts of research groups across the country have helped to rectify this lack of access through online databases of fMRI images; access to these images allows for countless research opportunities in the areas of anxiety, epilepsy, vision loss, dementia/Alzheimer’s, adolescent/adult depression and anxiety, and others. Jessica Cloud ’18 will review ways in which undergraduates and other researchers without access to fMRI machinery can perform research using fMRI images and discuss ongoing cognition research at Sarah Lawrence College that utilizes these techniques.