Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

This fMRI technique promised to transform brain research — why can no one replicate it?

The DIANA technique sparked excitement from neuroscientists. But two new papers have cast doubt over the results.
  1. McKenzie Prillaman

    1. McKenzie Prillaman is a freelance science journalist in Washington DC.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Coloured functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of a healthy human brain at rest.

Coloured functional magnetic resonance imaging of a healthy brain at rest. Credit: Mark & Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute/Science Photo Library

It was hailed as a potentially transformative technique for measuring brain activity in animals: direct imaging of neuronal activity (DIANA) held the promise of mapping neuronal activity so fast that neurons could be tracked as they fired. But nearly two years on from the 2022 Science paper1, no one outside the original research group and their collaborators has been able to reproduce the results.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00931-x

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 16 April 2024: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the specific number of mice involved in one of Kim’s analyses — it was one mouse.

  • Clarification 16 April 2024: An earlier version of this story did not make clear what was causing the fluctuation in the MRI signal.

References

  1. Toi, P. T. et al. Science 378, eabh4340 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Choi, S.-H. et al. Sci. Adv. 10, eadl0999 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Phi Van, V. D., Sen, S. & Jasanoff, A. Sci. Adv. 10, adl2034 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Research Associate - Metabolism

    Houston, Texas (US)

    Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

  • Postdoc Fellowships

    Train with world-renowned cancer researchers at NIH? Consider joining the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute

    Bethesda, Maryland

    NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI)

  • Faculty Recruitment, Westlake University School of Medicine

    Faculty positions are open at four distinct ranks: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, and Chair Professor.

    Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Westlake University

  • PhD/master's Candidate

    PhD/master's Candidate    Graduate School of Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University is seeking candidates for PhD and master's students i...

    Japan (JP)

    Kanazawa University

  • Senior Research Assistant in Human Immunology (wet lab)

    Senior Research Scientist in Human Immunology, high-dimensional (40+) cytometry, ICS and automated robotic platforms.

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Boston University Atomic Lab

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links