Neuroscience · Curated list
Electroencephalography, Positron emission tomography, Functional magnetic resonance imaging and 22 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the method's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
Electrophysiological method to record electrical activity of the brain
A way (EEG) of recording an electrogram of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity. The biosignals it picks up have been shown to reflect postsynaptic potentials of the pyramidal neurons found in the allocortex and neocortex.
2
Medical imaging technique
A functional imaging technique (PET) that uses radioactive substances, radiotracers, to make visible and quantify how metabolic processes change, along with other physiological activity such as absorption, regional chemical composition and blood flow. Clinically it is used in neurology and psychiatry, in cardiology and heart surgery, and to diagnose cancer and manage its treatment.
Wikidata · Photo: Jens Maus ( https://jens-maus.de/ ), Public domain
3
MRI procedure that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow
Also called functional MRI (fMRI), a way of measuring brain activity by detecting changes linked to blood flow. It depends on neuronal activation and cerebral blood flow being coupled: when a part of the brain is being used, more blood flows to it.
Wikidata · Photo: M.R.W.HH at German Wikipedia, Public domain
Controlling biological cells with light
A biological technique that uses light to characterise and control the activity of neurons or other kinds of cells. It works by making the target brain cells express ion channels, pumps or enzymes that respond to light.
Brain stimulation using magnetic fields
A noninvasive neurostimulation technique (TMS) in which a changing magnetic field induces an electric current, by electromagnetic induction, in a chosen area of the brain. A device called a stimulator produces electric pulses that go to a magnetic coil held against the scalp.
6
Neurosurgical treatment
A form of neurostimulation therapy (DBS). A pulse generator is surgically placed under the chest's skin, with leads running from it to the brain, where it delivers controlled electrical impulses. Therapeutically, these charges both disrupt and promote circuits of the nervous system that are not working properly, in both directions, ante- and retrograde.
Wikidata · Photo: Hellerhoff, CC BY-SA 3.0
Set of techniques to measure and visualize aspects of the nervous system
The use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study how the central nervous system is built and how it works, developed as an objective, non-invasive way to study the healthy human brain scientifically. It is used more and more in quantitative research on psychiatric illness and brain disease too.
8
Mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by currents in the brain
A functional neuroimaging technique (MEG) that maps brain activity by recording, with very sensitive magnetometers, the magnetic fields made by electrical currents that occur naturally in the brain. Arrays of SQUIDs are today's most common magnetometer, and the SERF magnetometer is being studied for future machines.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown NIMH author, Public domain
Laboratory technique in electrophysiology
A laboratory technique of electrophysiology for studying ionic currents in single isolated living cells, in tissue sections or in patches of cell membrane. It is especially useful for studying excitable cells, such as pancreatic beta cells, muscle fibres, cardiomyocytes and neurons, and bacterial ion channels can also be studied with it, in giant spheroplasts prepared for the purpose.
Brain response that is the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event
A measured brain response (ERP) that directly results from a particular sensory, cognitive or motor event; more formally, any stereotyped electrophysiological response to a stimulus.
11
Medical treatment that involves delivering electrical impulses to the vagus nerve
A medical treatment (VNS) that delivers electrical impulses to the vagus nerve. First developed by James Leonard Corning to stimulate or compress the carotid sheath, it now usually means an implanted electrode.
Electrical potential evoked in the nervous system
Also called an evoked response (EV): an electrical potential, in a particular pattern, recorded from one part of a human's or another animal's nervous system, especially the brain, after a stimulus such as a pure tone or a flash of light. Stimuli of different types and modalities produce different kinds of potential.
13
Set of neuroscience techniques
Techniques of neuroscience that produce maps of the brain, by laying measured (biological) properties or quantities over spatial representations of it.
Wikidata · Photo: BruceBlaus, CC BY 3.0
14
Technique of brain electric stimulation therapy
A form of neuromodulation (tDCS) that passes a constant, low-intensity direct current through electrodes on the scalp. This neurotherapy was first developed for patients with neuropsychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder, or with brain injuries.
Wikidata · Photo: Yokoi and Sumiyoshi. 2015, CC BY 4.0
15
Silver staining technique for visualizing nervous tissue under light microscopy
A silver stain for viewing nervous tissue under a light microscope. Camillo Golgi, the Italian physician and scientist who discovered it, published the first image produced this way in 1873.
Wikidata · Photo: The original uploader was Cahass at English Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0
Purposeful modulation of nervous system activity
The deliberate modulation of the nervous system's activity, by invasive or non-invasive means; the term usually means the electromagnetic approaches to neuromodulation.
17
Brain function imaging
Using neuroimaging technology to measure some aspect of brain function, often to understand how activity in particular brain areas relates to particular mental functions. It is used mainly as a research tool in cognitive and social neuroscience, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology.
Wikidata · Photo: Washington irving at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Type of electrophysiological monitoring
Abbreviated ECoG: a kind of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), and of electrophysiological monitoring, that records the cerebral cortex's electrical activity with electrodes placed right on the brain's exposed surface. Conventional electroencephalography (EEG), by contrast, uses electrodes outside the skull.
Auditory phenomenon in the brain
Also called “brainstem evoked response audiometry” (BERA), “brainstem auditory evoked potentials” (BAEPs) or “brainstem auditory evoked responses” (BAERs): an auditory evoked potential (ABR), picked out from the brain's continuing electrical activity and recorded through scalp electrodes. What is recorded is six to seven vertex-positive waves, of which I to V are assessed.
Form of neurostimulation
A form of neurostimulation (CES) that passes a small, pulsed alternating current through electrodes on the head. It is used with the aim of treating conditions such as insomnia, depression and anxiety.
Scientific method
A microscopy technique for measuring by optical means the calcium (Ca²⁺) status of an isolated cell, a tissue or a medium. It relies on calcium indicators, fluorescent molecules whose fluorescence changes when Ca²⁺ ions bind to them.
Obsolete procedure for brain imaging
A medical procedure, once in common use, that drained most of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) around the brain through a lumbar puncture and replaced it with helium, oxygen or air, so that the brain's structure showed more clearly on an X-ray. It grew out of ventriculography, an earlier, cruder method that injects air through holes drilled into the skull.
Neuroimaging technique to differentiate neurons
A process that tells individual neurons in the brain apart from their neighbours with fluorescent proteins. By making single neurons express random ratios of blue, green and red derivatives of green fluorescent protein, each neuron can be marked with a colour of its own.
3D visualization of nerve tracts via diffusion MRI
In neuroscience, a technique of 3D modelling that depicts nerve tracts from data collected by diffusion MRI, using special magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques and computer-based diffusion MRI.
Method to measure responses of a neuron
In neuroscience, a way of measuring the electrophysiological responses of one neuron with a microelectrode system. When a neuron fires an action potential, the signal travels down it as a current, which passes into and out of the cell through the excitable membrane regions of the axon and soma.
Every Wikidata item that is a kind of neuroimaging, of neuromodulation or of electrophysiology, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 25 are shown.
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
These belong on the list but Wikidata does not file them where the query looks:
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-26. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
If you are reading this on the way somewhere: Computatus eSIM sells prepaid data eSIMs for 190 countries, installed by QR code before you leave, so maps, tickets and messages work without a roaming bill.
| Country | Cheapest plan | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1GB per day | $2.33 | Get it → |
| France | 2GB per day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| Italy | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| United Kingdom | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Germany | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Canada | 1GB per day | $2.47 | Get it → |
| India | 1GB per day | $3.26 | Get it → |
| Australia | 1GB per day | $1.79 | Get it → |
See all Computatus eSIM plans →
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this site. Nothing above depends on it: every entry is chosen and ranked before any price is looked up.
