When our brain is stimulated, blood flow increases. For 30 years, this relationship has been at the heart of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), one of the main techniques used to visualize brain activity in humans.
fMRI does not directly measure the activity of neurons, but rather detects variations in blood oxygenation that coincide with this activity.
In a study published inScience, a team led by Ravi Rungta, researcher at the Courtois Institute of Biomedical Innovation and professor in the Department of Stomatology of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Montreal, reveals that this relationship is not as obvious as we thought.