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• fMRI
  fMRI

  abbreviation

  functional magnetic resonance imaging: a procedure that uses MRI technology to measure and map brain activity by detecting changes in the brain’s blood flow and oxygenation.
• FMRI
  FMRI

  abbreviation

  functional magnetic resonance imaging: a technique that directly measures the blood flow in the brain, thereby providing information on brain activity

fMRI

American  

abbreviation

Medicine/Medical.

1. Also called functional MRI. functional magnetic resonance imaging: a procedure that uses MRI technology to measure and map brain activity by detecting changes in the brain’s blood flow and oxygenation.

2. functional magnetic resonance imager: a type of MRI scanner that is used in this procedure.

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FMRI British  

abbreviation

1. functional magnetic resonance imaging: a technique that directly measures the blood flow in the brain, thereby providing information on brain activity

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FMRI Cultural  

1. Abbreviation for f unctional m agnetic r esonance i maging. In FMRI, a patient is placed in a high magnetic field and delicate measurements of magnetic fields associated with processes like blood flow are made. In this way, the functioning of organs like the brain can be monitored as they occur. (Compare MRI.)

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FMRI images are used to determined which parts of the brain “light up” when a function such as speech or recognition is performed.

Example Sentences

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fMRI

Participants then did an exercise designing a store of their choice using ChatGPT, while fMRI scanners recorded their brain activity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

The fMRI also detected less synchronized blood flow in regions of the children’s brains associated with attention and information processing than they did in the adults’.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

In a separate study, published in Communications Biology in 2022, researchers put squirrels into fMRI scanners—tracking blood flow in the brain to reveal which regions are active and how they communicate with one another.

From Slate ● Jan. 25, 2026

When fMRI machines came online in the 1990s, researchers did use them to look at infant brains, but these scans were typically conducted when babies were sleeping, Yates said.

From Salon ● May 7, 2025

They’d also take fMRI, functional MRI images—so-called real-time MRI— which would measure blood flow changes as Reggie engaged in different behaviors.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel