Our skull protects our brain, but it also serves as a barrier to the direct observation of cognitive activity and our brain's organization and development. Scientists who studied brain properties and functions 20 years ago were thus forced to experiment on animal brains, to study autopsied brains of people who had various cognitive and/or motor impairments, and to compare the behavior of people with normal and abnormal brains. It was a difficult and principally inferential process.

Recent advances in computerized imaging technology have made it possible to technologically pass through the skull and brain tissue and observe, amplify, record, rapidly analyze, and graphically display the brain substances and signals that reflect activity in very specific brain regions. This technology has revolutionized brain and mind research, and the diagnosis and treatment of many brain-related diseases and malfunctions.