Wearable brain scanners to enable broader, easier, cheaper access to neuroimaging

Credit: University of Nottingham ___ This Brain Scanner Is Way Smaller Than fMRI but Somehow 1,000% Creepier (Gizmodo): “It may look like something befitting Halloween’s Michael Myers, but the device pictured above is actually a breakthrough in neuroscience—a portable, wearable brain scanner that can monitor neural activity while a person is moving… It uses a technology called magnetoencephalography, or MEG, which measures magnetic signals generated by the brain’s electrical currents at the scalp. With mathematical analysis, those fields can be used to create a 3D map of brain function with millisecond resolution. …British researchers managed to shrink the technology down to an over-sized helmet with the help of quantum sensors. Each sensor contains a gas of rubidium atoms with properties aligned by a laser beam. Brain activity can cause a tiny magnetic field, and thus induce tiny changes to these atoms, decreasing the intensity of the beam. All this allows for a sensor that doesn’t need to be supercooled the way competing scanners do. In tests of the device, they note that the technology also enables scanning of the brain during more natural activities, like drinking a cup of coffee.” The Study Moving magnetoencephalography towards real-world applications with a wearable system (Nature). Abstract: Imaging human brain function with techniques such as magnetoencephalography1 typically requires a subject to perform tasks while their head remains still with...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Technology brain-function brain-scan Connectome magnetoencephalography MEG neural-activity neuroimaging neurotech Neurotechnology wearable Source Type: blogs