Neurosalience #S1E4 - The unique relationship between scanner vendors and the field of fMRI

In this week's episode, Peter Bandettini talks to directly to MRI scanner vendors. Together, they try to reconcile the importance of fMRI in research contexts with the market pressures of developing clinical applications. As fMRI has virtually no clinical market, does it really influence vendor decisions on pulse sequences and hardware? Could more be done aside from making fMRI more clinically relevant? In this discussion, you’ll hear some fascinating history into the early days of echo planar imaging and high speed imaging, as well as insight into the processes by which products are prioritised. You’ll also find out a possible future of how fMRI may begin to become more clinically useful.