This chapter explains the physical and biological principles behind the main imaging methods that measure hemodynamics, including Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI, arterial spin labeling fMRI, positron emission tomography (PET), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Molecular neuroimaging is also covered in the discussion of PET and MRS.

We introduce basic principles of the statistical analysis of hemodynamic imaging data, including concepts like the General Linear Model, data cleaning, efficiency, parametric hypothesis testing, correction for multiple comparisons, first- and second-level analyses, region of interest analysis, double dipping, and the issue of statistical inference with reference to forward and reverse inferences.

Chapter 10 explains how electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) work. EEG and MEG equipment is explained component by component in plain language. EEG and MEG signal acquisition procedures are explained along with the basics of digital signal processing to bridge the conceptual understanding of the signals to practical EEG and MEG data analysis. In addition to traditional methods, dry electrode EEG and optically pumped magnetometer MEG (OPM-MEG) methods are introduced.

In this chapter we discuss how multiple imaging modalities can be conbined and the benefits of such combinations. We illustrate such multi-modal imaging with several examples, including the fusion of fMRI and MEG, simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fMRI, source localization, the combination of analyses of functional connectivity and multi-voxel pattern analyses, and potential benefits of multi-modal imaging for clinical diagnostics.

We discuss how to design a hemodynamic imaging experiment. We present the main designs, including block and event-related designs. We discuss the subtraction method, and consider the relevance of baseline conditions.

This concluding chapter discusses the potential and limitations of the wide diversity of neuroimaging methods. The introductory chapter I was going into such questions but does not yet provide an informed answer because at that point the reader does not yet have any technical knowledge. It is relevant to come back to some of the earlier examples and provide a more in-depth and informed evaluation of neuroimaging. This concluding chapter avoids most technicalities (which received ample attention in the other chapters) and focuses more upon the broader picture.

Chapter 3 covers several structural imaging methods, including T1-weighted imaging, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

There is evidence that language has some innate basis. Babies are born with certain expectations as to how language works, and language learning, according to Chomsky, is simply a matter of parameter setting. Pinker and Bloom (1990) take an evolutionary perspective on language. Chomsky’s recent theoretical work suggests that very little of the language ‘organ’ is specific to language. Some language deficits have been traced to a malfunctioning variant of the gene FOXP2. While this initially excited attention as ‘the language gene’ or ‘the grammar gene’, subsequent research has shown the true story to be more complicated. Research suggests that language may well have been around for almost 2 million years. There are a number of hypotheses suggesting that language evolved to fulfil a social function, such as social grooming (binding groups together), the making of social contracts (to enable monogamy) and the use of language to impress potential mates.

Evolutionary psychologists use the concept of reciprocal altruism/direct reciprocation to help explain cooperative behaviour. Direct reciprocation consists of self-sacrificing acts between two unrelated individuals that are based on delayed reciprocation. Documented cases of reciprocity are known in non-human species including the giving of regurgitated blood between vampire bats and mutual aid in vervet monkeys. Tit-for-tat has been labelled an evolutionarily stable strategy, or ESS. An ESS is a strategy that cannot be bettered provided sufficient members of a group adopt it. Humans playing prisoner’s dilemma repeatedly develop the ESS tit-for-tat strategy. This suggests that humans seek a willingness to cooperate but also bear a grudge when this cooperation is not reciprocated. Aggression and violence between the sexes covers: sexual harassment, intimate partner violence and rape. While rape and sexual harassment are almost exclusively male preserves, intimate partner violence involving female-on-male acts is actually slightly more common than the reverse.

Rather than thinking of nature versus nurture it is better to think about interactions between genes and the environment. The Santa Barbara School of evolutionary psychology proposed that human cognition is the result of innately specified domain-specific mental modules. Babies have certain expectations of the way that the physical world operates. Infants of at least three months of age have the knowledge that objects exist independently of their ability to perceive them. Babies have preference for face-like stimuli from birth and learn the details of human faces rapidly. Young children have an understanding of the role of mental states as a cause of behaviour. This skill, known as theory of mind, becomes more sophisticated as children develop. It is measured by a number of tasks such as false belief task and the eyes test, in which participants are required to judge how people feel from looking at their eyes.