Book Review
Brain Imaging
Introduction to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles and Techniques. Richard B Buxton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2002. 523 p. US$140.00.
Reviewer
rating*: Very Good
Review by: Jimmy Jensen, PhD,
Shitij Kapur, MD, FRCPC, PhD
Toronto, Ontario
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has received much attention and interest in the past decade. The increasing number of scanners around the world has made it possible for many groups to use this technique. Until now, however, it has been difficult to find a single, comprehensive source from which to gain the understand of its different aspects that is necessary before conducting experiments (for example, physics, physiological underpinnings of the MRI signal, experimental design, and analysis).
Richard B Buxton’s book attempts to resolve this need for educational material. The author is not only a professor in radiology with a background in physics but a leading authority in the MRI field. In this book, he introduces how fMRI works, describing basic principles and the underlying physics and physiology as well as more recent techniques. His aim is that the book should be accessible to new investigators or clinicians and that it should contain sufficient depth for active investigators to find it useful.
The book is divided into 3 major sections. Section 1, a general introduction to imaging—especially fMRI—begins with a discussion about the brain metabolism and how it relates to activation. Buxton provides a comprehensive explanation of the physiology behind the most common signal measured with fMRI, the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD). The section continues with a review of basic MRI physics and principles, such as how localization of brain activations is performed. It ends with a discussion about different fMRI techniques. The section is clearly written, covers most basics, and can be quite easily understood.
The remainder of the book describes, in more detail, some issues that were discussed in the first section. The second section primarily covers the MRI signal and how it is imaged. Although the physics is more advanced and more difficult to grasp, we also learn more about fMRI core features; specifically, pulse sequences, k-space, and noise. This section provides benefits in that Buxton explains how features interconnect (for example, the relation between field-of-view, resolution, pixel, and voxel) and how the RF-pulse and band and magnetic field gradients relate to slice selection. Several areas in this section are advanced, making them less accessible for beginners in the field.
In the first part of the last section, Buxton is a bit ahead of current mainstream fMRI imaging. Along with BOLD, he discusses other more recent fMRI techniques, such as arterial spin labelling and contrast agent techniques. According to Buxton, these techniques will become more important in the near future. This section ends with 2 chapters that provide an overview of statistical analysis and experimental design for BOLD experiments. However, these last 2 chapters are less thorough: in other words, they do not contain the depth of previous chapters and, as a result, leave us wanting more information about conducting a good experiment and about how different preprocessing stages affect data. Design and analysis, however, are large areas to cover, and the author promises only fMRI principles and techniques in the book’s title.
This book aims to reach both beginners and active scientists and clinicians in the fMRI field, and Buxton has succeeded. The book relies on text and figures with explanations, rather than on colour pictures, which makes it a valuable reference source. Although he does not always succeed in explaining the difficult areas simply, readers will most likely find the answers to their questions. The book also offers a few boxes with highlighted areas to broaden the topic under discussion, and for the more advanced reader, mathematical explanations are included. Frequently, some topics are repeated over and over again (for example, the physiological foundation of the BOLD). However, if the sections were meant to be independent, these overlaps may have been a conscious choice. The best way to use this high-density fact book is as a reference. Unfortunately, most papers from the fMRI field contain strange words and acronyms; however, Buxton explains most of these and their relation to each other.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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