Customer Reviews

Introduction to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles and Techniques

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I have tended to be frustrated with the books available on fMRI, which have all been in the format of edited chapters by an wide array of authors. While that format would seem to have the advantage that the leading experts on a particular area are presenting the material they know best, in effect it causes a disjointed text that is hard to follow.

In contrast, this book was written entirely by a single author who has a style that is clear and easy to follow. I wouldn't say that Buxton's writing is conversational, but he does a good job of making the wide range of topics (both physical and physiological) accessible without using over-simplifications or backing off from the current controversies in the field. Another strength of the book is that he gives considerable treatment to alternative methods (such as perfusion, diffusion and tracer methods) which have been slighted in other texts to include yet another chapter on 3T vs 4T.

(Disclaimer: I know and like Rick, but I'm trying to be objective regardless!)

So I've owned this book since it was first out. I didn't look at the first edition that much, but I've found that in the past year or so the second edition has become progressively more useful to me. (I think it's just the timing, it's nothing to do with the 2nd edition per se.) It is an introductory text, but not perhaps in the way most people would expect: as a laundry list of terms and their explanations that can be used like a dictionary. Instead, this is a book that needs to be read. And that's why I think I've found it more useful of late. If I am looking for a solid description of a particular phenomenon and it's covered in the book then it's usually an elegant explanation. Indeed, my biggest complaint is that there aren't more sections on more topics!

I don't think there is a single introductory text that fully covers fMRI, whether it's for the acquisition, the data processing, the experimental design or what have you. But this text is definitely a very useful member of a small set of useful introductions, most prominent amongst which I would put the intro text by Huettel, Song and McCarthy. HSM is a radically different approach to fMRI than Buxton; I wouldn't be without the pair of them.

In sum, it's thorough, very well written, readable for someone with a modicum of background knowledge. If you're transitioning from another area of NMR or MRI, or you've just taken an intro MRI/fMRI course (and you understood most of it!) then you should find this text useful.