What we can do and what we cannot do with fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the mainstay of neuroimaging in the neural and cognitive sciences. It measures haemodynamic changes following neural activity and has the potential, eventually, to reveal the intimate details of brain organization. But in a Review Article, Nikos Logothetis strikes a note of caution: the conclusions drawn from fMRI data often ignore the actual limitations of the methodology. Logothetis gives an overview of current fMRI technology and outlines our understanding of the haemodynamic signals and the constraints they impose on the interpretation of neuroimaging data.