Neuroimaging: a story of physicians and basic scientists.

Until just a few decades ago, it was very difficult to detect, non invasively, physiological signals from the brain. However, the discoveries in physics, the evolution of information technology, and the invention of non-invasive biomedical technologies in the last decades of the twentieth century transformed this scenario and created numerous opportunities for studying the brain in living subjects. The authors trace the extraordinary evolution of brain imaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging, emission tomography, and ?functional neuroimaging?) in the second part of the twentieth century. Not only have these methods had a remarkable clinical impact, they have also been outstanding research tools in the field of the neurosciences. In their most recent applications, they are employed in the quest to uncover the neuronal substrate of the human mind.