Brain - 1 Limitations of Brain Imaging Research Andy Johnson, Ph.D. Minnesota State University The Reading Instruction Show https://thereadinginstructionshow.substack.com/ * This is an excerpt from my book, Making Sense of the Science of Reading: Teachers Matter. It will be published by Guildford Publishing sometime in 2027. “ And my head I'd be a scratchin' While my thoughts are busy hatchin' If I only had a brain” (The Scarecrow, 1939) Brain Imaging Research Just because a book, article, or presentation includes pictures of a brain or uses a whole bunch of big brain words, does not mean the information presented is always accurate or scientific. We must be critical consumers of all information, and this includes brain imaging research. The Basics The first thing to understand is that brain imaging is not a single uniform thing. There are different types of brain imaging technologies that measure different things in different ways. These include the following: Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Electroencephalography (EEG), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). And when I say measure, they identify which part of a person’s brain becomes active under certain conditions. These different technologies record, measure, or track the following kinds of things: • Magnetic field and radio waves • Changes in blood flow and oxygen levels • Electrical activity • Movement of water molecules • A mildly radioactive substance (tracer) as it moves through the brain • A series of X-rays