Re:40 percent of fMRI signals do not correspond to actual br...
by j45 on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @02:35PM
(#46293285)
fMRI can track oxygenation changes, and indirectly where the blood flow is, or isn't, and perhaps some ideas on where to get it.
All to say, this application might not fall in the 40%.
I just find articles like these can't help but feel like they have an agenda to undermine something instead of simply acknowledge the kinds of things it is and isn't working for.
There's no doubt these researchers have found something, but the need for sensationalistic headlines is well known in academia as well.
Sometimes it's noticeable where the research is specific in scope, but the findings are more general and broad.
This all makes sense because fMRI tracks metabolic activity via oxygenation changes, which is much more clearly and plausibly related to tissue health and recovery. In these cases, it is also most likely being used within-subject (i.e. longitudinally) to make comparisons to baselines, rather than in an attempt to make speculative inferences about the mind using groups of people, and likely is a simple comparison to baseline rather than bespoke statistical analyses relying on questionable assumptions about the BOLD response being related to overly-specific kinds of neural activity.