In the 1990s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which had been primarily used to study the body, gave way to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures blood-flow activity in the brain. At Johns Hopkins, it was this technique that allowed Charles Limb to scan the brains of improv jazz musicians during flow—providing our first images of transient hypofrontality in action. At Emory, it was fMRI that helped Greg Berns map the dopamine system’s relationship to flow triggers like risk and novelty. At Baylor, it was David Eagleman and time dilation. And this list goes on.
