Idan Blank, a post-doctoral researcher at MIT, explains how MRI and fMRI work, and highlights some important principles for the design fMRI experiments that examine functional specialization in the brain. These principles are illustrated through two fMRI studies. The first reveals brain regions that are active when subjects perform intuitive physical inference, and the second identifies patterns of brain activity suggesting that imagining a recent social break-up is associated with physical pain. 

Video:

•  Systems neuroscience using fMRI: Studying the brain to understand the mind (1:02:50)

Additional Resources:

• Idan Blank’s website
• Fischer, J., Mikhael, J. G., Tenenbaum, J. B. & Kanwisher, N. (2016) Functional neuroanatomy of intuitive physical inference, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(34):E5072-E5081.
• Kross, E., Berman, M. G., Mischel, W., Smith, E. E. & Wager, T. D. (2011) Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(15):6270-6275.