Many neuroimaging papers depict colored spots on pictures of brains. However, many readers are unsure as to exactly what these "hot spots" tell us about the underlying cognitive processes and neural activity. The goal of this lecture is to enable non-expert readers to appreciate and critique functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) results, based on an understanding of the basic principles and pitfalls underlying the design, analysis, and interpretation of these experiments. Iāll begin by reviewing the basic classes of experimental design and analysis, providing some "rules of thumb" to apply when reading fMRI papers. I'll then touch upon the relationship between fMRI responses and more direct measures of neural activity. We'll then apply these principles to interpret (and, perhaps, re-interpret) results from some well-known fMRI studies of high-level visual perception. These examples will suggest how some fMRI experiments can test hypotheses about the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual and cognitive processes, instead of being limited to the localization of this activity..