認知神經科學的基本精神為運用科學方法探討心理歷程的神經機制，希望找出腦與心智的運作關
係。隨著此學門的蓬勃發展與科技的日新月異，近年來科學家開始應用各種腦影像技術探討腦與心智的關連性，從動物模型至人類大腦、從分子生物到系統神經科學，都可以藉由腦影像技術探索大腦與心智的奧秘關係。其中磁振造影技術能提供高解析度與高安全性的非侵入式腦部影像掃描，運用功能性磁振造影與擴散性磁振造影有助於科學家了解大腦功能性與結構性連結。尖端磁振造影技術不僅有助於標示各種疾病之狀態，最終目的則希望能將此尖端技術從實驗室研發轉譯到臨床應用，不只適用於醫療診斷，同時對於解開人腦運作時的奧秘亦有助益，將有助於腦與心智醫學發展。

The discipline of cognitive neuroscience is to apply scientific methods to investigate the neuro-cognitive mechanism of psychological processing. This approach may shed light on the relationship between brain and mind. Recently, rapid advancement of imaging techniques and its growing availability has transformed the scenario of cognitive neuroscience research. Neuroscientists apply various imaging methods to study the brain across different species, from mice, rats, monkeys to human, and at different scales, from molecular, cellular to systems level. Since 1990s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become a dominant tool in neuroimaging due to its non-invasiveness, free of ionizing radiation and relatively wide availability. In the past two decades, functional MRI (fMRI) has emerged as a principal research tool to probe the patterns of brain
activations during tasks or in resting state. Diffusion MRI has recently attracted attention because it opens up a
window to the mapping of the complex wiring scheme in the brain. By combining these two MRI methods, one
can investigate the functional connectivity and structural connectivity, and may gain important insights into the
working of the brain as a circuitry. Brain imaging will continue to grow in two major directions. First, fMRI and
diffusion MRI techniques will be improved to a point that the image quality can achieve the clinical standard.
Second, the imaging data will be combined with genetic and behavioral test data so that clinically relevant
biomarkers can be discovered. In conclusion, brain imaging has shown its capability to reveal the workings of
the brain and may be potentially useful in brain and mind medicine.