This paper marks the 30th anniversary of the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software and the journal Cerebral Cortex: two modest milestones that mark the inception of cognitive neuroscience. We take this opportunity to reflect on SPM, a generation after its introduction. Each of the authors of this paper-who represent a small selection of the many contributors to SPM-were asked to consider lessons learned, what has gone well, and where there is room for improvement in future development. We hope that this review of SPM-and its aspirations-will provide some context for current imaging neuroscience and foreground some potential directions for the future of the field.
Keywords: EEG; MEG; MRI; SPM; statistical parametric mapping.
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press.