Research Trend and Application for Dementia using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Recently, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been usefully used for brain function evaluation and early diagnosis for patients with dementia. fMRI has several advantages, as is a non-invasive technique without radiational hazard and thus can be repeated many times for clinical trials during a longitudinal study. It has relatively high spatial and reasonable temporal resolution and can be acquired in the same session as structural MRI. In the future, fMRI study combined with various clinical data or genetic information such as the association of APOE 4 gene with cognitive function in the Alzheimer's disease will outstandingly improve early detection and diagnostic accuracy of diseases for patients with dementia.