Neuropsychological issues in functional magnetic resonance

Cognitive neuropsychology and functional magnetic resonance (RMf) have marked a particularly fertile period in the development of neurosciences. Their clinical value, although incipient, is unquestionable. Integration of these two disciplines allows the registration of cerebral images related to the neuronal activation of specific areas, providing structural and functional information of the human brain under normal and pathological conditions. The RMf has important clinical and research applications. For example, pointing the brain areas needed to be avoided during surgery, or observing the neurofunctional changes that take place with a pharmacological treatment or neuropsychological rehabilitation. It also permits increasing the knowledge of neurofunctional bases of different cerebral pathologies. It is of special interest and importance the selection and implementation of the activation paradigm on functions to be studied, condition that is required for the correct interpretation of the results. The procedure for RMf allows the study of a specific component in the cognitive process in response to a specific task. It doesn't identify the function as a unique feature, but it identifies neurofunctional patterns. In this article, the basic theoretical-methodological neuropsychological aspects are described for the implementation of studies by RMf.