Brain Imaging News and Community

Honda Uses MRI to Control Robot Hand

Yahoo News has an article on how Honda was able to use a subject in a MRI scanner to control a robotic hand: '...In a video demonstration in Tokyo, brain signals detected by a magnetic resonance imaging scanner were relayed to a robotic hand. A person in the MRI machine made a fist, spread his fingers and then made a V-sign. Several seconds later, a robotic hand mimicked the movements...'

Diabetes Detection by MRI

Interesting story first seen on slashdot about a new technique for the early detection of diabetes via MRI. It has also only been shown in rats but is very likely to be translated for human use. Science Daily article here, Pubmed PDF link here.

Brainpower is just enough for a game

According to a report in the Hindustan Times: '...According to Nature, the game is based on table tennis that people can play using nothing more than the power of their minds. Each 'brain pong' player lies in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine After a short period of training, the players are able to make their ping-pong bat move up and down the screen by concentrating on specific thoughts. Sophisticated data analysis software makes the system responsive enough for two players to compete in real time...'

King Tut's Face Re-Created with CT Scanner

Wired news is reporting: that: 'Three teams of scientists have created the first facial reconstructions of King Tutankhamun based on CT scans of his mummy. The images are strikingly similar both to each other and to ancient portraits of the boy pharaoh, including his depiction on the famed golden mask he wore into the crypt...' The report includes pictures of the re-creations.

Engineering therapies for better mental health

There's an interesting story on Science Blog about engineering for studying mental disorders: '..."You don't hear those two words�engineering and psychiatry�put together in the same sentence very often," Deisseroth observes. By putting the two fields together in the lab, he hopes to develop treatments that are less painful, faster acting and more effective than the less precise treatments available today. "The brain, when you get down to it, is fundamentally an electrical circuit," Deisseroth says. "What we're doing here is [developing] tools, bioengineering-based tools, to observe circuit dynamics and to control circuit dynamics on a millisecond timescale." Ultimately, these efforts are meant to develop new therapies that will fine-tune the faulty circuitry underlying disease...'

AP: Some Seniors Turning to Brain Screening

Here's an interesting AP article on Yahoo: 'Bill Crist was angry and upset when his doctor diagnosed him with dementia. But the 64-year-old retired pharmacist felt a little better after going to the Center for BrainHealth for an evaluation, which showed his language skills and memory were still quite strong... Such exams are becoming increasingly popular as aging Americans try to differentiate between normal aging problems and the effects of neurological conditions. The three-hour screenings cost $350 and are not covered by insurance. Many people get tested even when they aren't showing signs of brain problems...'

Free and Open Source Imaging Software

Scientific processing of brain images is dominated by Free (refers to the license, not price) and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools like Analysis of Functional Images (AFNI) (which has some "fun" features). Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) is also widely used but is based upon the proprietary Matlab platform. SPM itself is FOSS. Both of these package are used to process fMRI, MRI, PET and SPECT images. There are other packages as well...

MNT: New Insight into Synesthesia

Interesting article in Medical News Today about fMRI results on people who have synesthesia, in this case the ability to 'see' colors in letters and numbers: ...In fMRI scans, the researchers found that the synesthetes showed greater activation in a color-perception region of the cortex when viewing graphemes, compared to normal control subjects. The researchers found that the strength of this activation influences the strength of the synesthetic colors. In fMRI, harmless radio waves and magnetic fields are used to map regions of higher blood flow in the brain, which reflects higher activity in those regions...

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Welcome to Brain Imaging News

This is a website for news about Brain Imaging and a resource for the Brain Imaging community. More concentrated than an e-mail list, this site is for those who do not have time to sift through the news or discussion groups. Please post any Community news on topics like PET, SPECT, fMRI, DTI, image processing tools, books, hardware, manufacturers of equipment like GE, Phillips, Siemens or anything else by clicking the 'Post Article' link to the left. The website editor will moderate and post newsworthy items. This site also supports Article discussion by clicking Read On... and then the Reply link. This website is for you, enjoy!