That brain you are scanning is part of a living, breathing system, and it shows

COEX 

Although fMRI is a powerful tool for studying neural activity, the signals we measure reflect a diverse range of physiologic processes that intrinsically couple the brain to the body. We do not scan a brain in isolation from the human being that hosts it, and it is nearly impossible to “turn off” a beating heart or breathing lungs when we probe brain function. In this educational session, I will discuss the physics and physiology of how cardiac, respiratory and arterial CO2 factors influence the fMRI timeseries, and demonstrate best practices for recording and interpreting physiologic signals during an fMRI scan. I will also introduce less well-established physiologic signals that can also be explored in fMRI, to better understand arousal, cerebral spinal fluid flow in relation to waste clearance, gut-brain interactions, and how all these aspects of human physiology may interact with our understanding of brain function when using neuroimaging.