Possibilities and limitations of pharmacological fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques allow to investigate non-invasively and in-vivo the function of the central nervous system (CNS). They have the potential to provide sensitive and specific biomarkers about aberrant CNS functions. Combing drug administration and fMRI, which is termed as pharmacological fMRI (phFMRI), is particularly suited to investigate the CNS effects of pharmacological agents, for example on pain processing. In this talk phFMRI studies are presented that have already used this technique to study the effects of analgesic compounds. However, several methodological consider…