What It’s Like To Participate in a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Research Study
Stories from my undergrad
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to participate in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging fMRI study? I participated in a few when I was completing my undergrad degree (all those years ago!) and they were among the most interesting studies I participated in.
A lot of neuroscience and psychology labs conduct research in these cool scanners to look at how your brain works as you perform various brain-boggling tasks. At the time, I’d never done any scans before so the fMRI was truly my first time in a scanner.
Here’s my story of what this experience is like!
Getting Involved: The Dive Into Research
A lot of research labs will promote these via posters and social media to invite participants into the lab to participate. In my case, as a research assistant in various labs, I was actually invited to fill in last-minute no-show slots by other graduate students in the lab.
At the time, it cost $500 CAD to book the scanner, a sum that has to be paid even if the participant doesn’t show up. Often, graduate students scrambled to find last-minute participants to fill those cancelled slots in…
