Sex, lies, and brain scans: how fMRI reveals what really goes on in our minds

Normal MRI looks at the magnetic differences of the different environments of water in the body and shows the changes in density between different tissues like blood, bone or muscle. fMRI is similar, except that it measures the magnetic differences between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to track blood flow in the brain. In Sex, lies, and brain scans, neuroscientists Barbara Sahakian and Julia Gottwald tell how fMRI has enabled scientists to scan people’s brains in real time and show which regions of the brain are more or less active during a particular task or thought process, gaining insight into which part of the brain does what and the relationship between our brains and our minds.