Psychologists are key to designing neuroimaging studies that search for biological bases of autism.
MRI uses a magnetic field and strong pulses of radio waves to induce protons in the nuclei of various elements to emit characteristic radio signals, which are detected by a scanner and translated into an image by a computer. Structural MRI has been available since the 1980s for studying brain anatomy, but recent advances in imaging analysis now permit measurements of the shape and volume of thin, complex structures, such as the cortex, in ways that were not previously possible. It can be done repeatedly on children and adults because it does not involve the radioactive isotopes used in earlier functional imaging techniques. And it shows not only where brain activation is occurring, but also how hard that part of the brain is working. Psychologists play an essential role in fMRI studies because of their knowledge of the cognitive processes that underlie many behavioral tasks.