Magnetic resonance imaging: role in the understanding of cerebral malformations.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has had an enormous impact on the practice of medicine, and especially, on the clinical neurosciences. One area in which MRI has had a particularly large impact has been on the analysis and understanding of cerebral malformations. This manuscript describes the manner in which MRI in conjunction with modern molecular biology has helped to shed new light on our understanding and classification of cerebral malformations.