Technique

BOLD effects are measured using rapid volumetric acquisition of images with contrast weighed by. Such images can be acquired with moderately good spatial and temporal resolution; images are usually taken every 1–4 seconds, and the voxels in the resulting image typically represent cubes of tissue about 2–4 millimeters on each side in humans. Recent technical advancements, such as the use of high magnetic fields and multichannel RF reception, have advanced spatial resolution to the millimeter scale. Although responses to stimuli presented as close together as one or two seconds can be distinguished from one another, using a method known as event-related fMRI, the full time course of a BOLD response to a briefly presented stimulus lasts about 15 seconds for the robust positive response.