Center for Functional MRI In the Department of Radiology
Richard Buxton

Richard Buxton, Ph.D.

Professor of Radiology

Email: rbuxton@ucsd.edu

Dr. Buxton’s primary research is focused on understanding the connections between neural activity, blood flow and energy metabolism in the human brain. Experimental work combines arterial spin labeling (ASL) methods with blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) methods to estimate changes in brain oxygen metabolism in response to a stimulus or a drug. More theoretical work involves mathematical modeling of the imaging methods, the BOLD effect, and oxygen transport from blood to tissue.


In addition to his research on the brain, Dr. Buxton is an active collaborator with Susan R. Hopkins and G. Kim Prisk in the Pulmonary Imaging Lab, working on the application of ASL methods to measure dynamic blood flow changes in the lung.


Dr. Buxton is based at the Center for Functional MRI, and served as the Center’s founding Director (2000-2007). He has written a textbook on fMRI, now in its second edition, published by Cambridge University Press (2009).