April 02, 2007
MEG Scanners - A Faster View of the Brain
Magneto-encephalography, or MEG, scanners are a technology that has been around for over a decade but recent improvements in computing technology have made it one of the most powerful tools in the hands of scientists to observe important details about epilepsy, brain tumors, emotions, pain perception and more.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Magnetic Source Imaging Laboratory and others are studying the magnetic fields of neurons, using MEG scanners to learn more about the intricacies of brain pathology.
While other types of brain scans detail the geography of the brain or detect blood flow, the MEG scanners track the magnetic signals that neurons throw off as they communicate. The interaction of the networks of the brain can be observed in real time. Measuring activity each millisecond yields significantly more information than functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI technology which measures the movement of blood within the brain. In fMRI, the scans reveal which brain areas are active and need oxygen from the blood but it takes a while for oxygen-filled blood to move in the brain. So if a brain area was active for a 10th of a second, the blood-flow response to that area would take a second or two to start. Being able to see changes faster means being able to better track the sequence of brain activation.
Limitations
One thing MEG cannot do is analyze the physical parts of the brain, so MEGs become even more powerful when combined with other technologies, such as fMRI.
Research
A number of recent studies have been conducted using MEG technology. Research in social exclusion using MEG ws conducted at the University of Georgia and research from Heinrich-Heine-University, Dusseldorf, Germany shows that pain processing is faster than tactile processing in the human brain. Another German study measured face recognition and perception.
Posted by rsk at April 2, 2007 09:16 AM