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Thursday, July 7th, 2016

A bug in fMRI software could invalidate 15 years of brain research

Author:    
Source:     Science alert
Publication Date:     6 JUL 2016
Link: A bug in fMRI software could invalidate 15 years of brain research
Stephan:   This is why scientific findings are conditional until sufficient replications make it clear a finding is correct.
fMRI scans Credit: Shutterstock

fMRI scans
Credit: Shutterstock

There could be a very serious problem with the past 15 years of research into human brain activity, with a new study suggesting that a bug in fMRI software could invalidate the results of some 40,000 papers.

That’s massive, because functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the best tools we have to measure brain activity, and if it’s flawed, it means all those conclusions about what our brains look like during things like exercise, gaming, love, and drug addiction are wrong.

“Despite the popularity of fMRI as a tool for studying brain function, the statistical methods used have rarely been validated using real data,” researchers led by Anders Eklund from Linköping University in Sweden assert.

The main problem here is in how scientists use fMRI scans to find sparks of activity in certain regions of the brain. During an experiment, a participant will be asked to perform a certain task, while a massive magnetic field pulsates through their body, picking […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Thursday, July 7, 2016 at 9:46 am

    There is also a very serious problem caused by using the fMRI scans: the contrast agent used in this procedure, called “linear-type gadolinium-based agents” or GBCA has been found to leave gadodiamide (a heavy metal) in the brain and in the kidneys of patients who have been scanned using this method, and this can cause serious, life-threatening problems. No smart person would use this method.