Infant FMRI: A Model System for Cognitive Neuroscience

Overview

Journal Trends Cogn Sci

Date 2018 Mar 1

PMID 29487030

Citations 16

Authors

Cameron T Ellis

Nicholas B Turk-Browne

Affiliations

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Abstract

Our understanding of the typical human brain has benefitted greatly from studying different kinds of brains and their associated behavioral repertoires, including animal models and neuropsychological patients. This same comparative perspective can be applied to early development - the environment, behavior, and brains of infants provide a model system for understanding how the mature brain works. This approach requires noninvasive methods for measuring brain function in awake, behaving infants. fMRI is becoming increasingly viable for this purpose, with the unique ability to precisely measure the entire brain, including both cortical and subcortical structures. Here we discuss potential lessons from infant fMRI for several domains of adult cognition and consider the challenges of conducting such research and how they might be mitigated.

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