This work reviews recent advances in technologies for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human brain and highlights the push for higher functional specificity based on increased spatial resolution and specific MR contrasts to reveal previously undetectable functional properties of small-scale cortical structures. We discuss how the combination of MR hardware, advanced acquisition techniques and various MR contrast mechanisms have enabled recent advances in functional neuroimaging. However, these advanced fMRI practices have only been applied to a handful of neuroscience questions to date, with the majority of the neuroscience community still using conventional imaging techniques. We thus discuss upcoming challenges and possibilities for fMRI technology development in human neuroscience.

We hope that readers interested in functional brain imaging acquire an understanding of current and novel developments and potential future applications, even if they don’t have a background in MR physics or engineering. We summarize the capabilities of standard fMRI acquisition schemes with pointers to relevant literature and comprehensive reviews and introduce more recent developments.

这项工作回顾了人类大脑功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 技术的最新进展，并强调了基于提高空间分辨率和特定 MR 对比度来推动更高功能特异性的推动，以揭示以前无法检测到的小规模皮层结构的功能特性。我们讨论了 MR 硬件、先进的采集技术和各种 MR 对比机制的结合如何使功能性神经影像学的最新进展成为可能。然而，迄今为止，这些先进的 fMRI 实践仅应用于少数神经科学问题，大多数神经科学界仍在使用传统的成像技术。因此，我们讨论了人类功能磁共振成像技术发展即将面临的挑战和可能性神经科学。

我们希望对功能性脑成像感兴趣的读者能够了解当前和新颖的发展以及潜在的未来应用，即使他们没有 MR 物理学或工程学背景。我们总结了标准 fMRI 采集方案的能力，并提供了相关文献和综合评论的指针，并介绍了更多最新进展。