This Wild Mask Could Change the Way We Study the Brain
Brain-scanning tech that allows for movement could facilitate all kinds of new studies.
The technology used to study the brain has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, but some aspects of neuroscience are still frustratingly tied to giant machines that we use to pick up brain activity. One of these techniques, Magnetoencephalography, or MEG, generally puts subjects into a seat in a massive machine where they must sit completely still while the brain scan is in process. This is not idea for studying how the brain acts in most situations in our lives, when we're not sitting perfectly still.
Scientists at the University of Nottingham have devised a prototype that may change all that. It's an MEG device that fits onto the head like a helmet, allowing for much more movement while the scan takes place. They created the device by scanning one of the researchers heads, then creating a 3D printed helmet that fits it exactly. Small, sensitive magnetic field sensors are place on one area of the helmet to pick up brain activity in that region.
A larger challenge was how to measure the brain's electromagnetic activity without picking up the Earth's magnetic fields. To do this, another researcher devised a series of wire coils that sit on either side of the subject wearing the helmet, exerting an electromagnetic force that precisely cancels out the signals from the Earth's fields.
The use of this wearable scanner could dramatically alter the field of neuroscience, which until now has been limited by the movement of subjects. Children, for instance, have been difficult to scan. With the wearable scanner, we may be able to learn more about disorders that effect the childhood brain, like autism and epilepsy.
In the future researchers hope to create a more generic prototype that can be used by anyone, not just by someone whose head has been scanned for an exact fit. But for now, even if the results take a lot of work, their accomplishment is extraordinary.
The use of this wearable scanner could dramatically alter the field of neuroscience, which untinow has been limited by the movement of subjects. Children, for instance, have been difficult to scan. With the wearable scanner, we may be able to learn more about disorders that effect the childhood brain, like autism and epilepsy.
In the future researchers hope to create a more generic prototype that can be used by anyone, not just by someone whose head has been scanned for an exact fit. But for now, even if the results take a lot of work, their accomplishment is extraordinary.
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