Hello again! ... 

I haven’t posted a blog in a while so I thought I would update you all. I have recently sent off my UCAS form for university for Diagnostic Radiography, which I am very excited about! The course looks very interesting and fascinating and I am waiting in anticipation for my chosen Universities to respond!  I have always known that I have wanted to peruse a career in the medical field and I have finally found a course that I feel I will thoroughly enjoy! Medical imaging technology is always advancing and developing to help diagnose complex illnesses, and I can’t wait to be a part of it!  

 No ordinary scan…

fMRI scan or Functional magnetic resonance scan is a relatively new scan that produces not just advanced 3D Images of organs and tissues but also has the capability to provide doctors with thought identification- “reading the mind”.

It functions in a similar way to the MRI scan in that it uses a powerful magnetic field as well as radio waves, to produce sophisticated images. But fMRI scan differs from the MRI scan because it ingeniously detects the active areas of the brain by the oxygenated blood resonance, which differs from deoxygenated blood resonance by around 20%. Scientists already know that active parts of the brain receive more oxygenated blood; the fMRI measures the blood flow of the active areas in the brain this is called blood-oxygen level- dependent-signal (BOLD Signal).

The uses of fMRI:

•      Brain mapping
•     Planning surgery
•    Analysing emotions
•    Market research

Brain mapping- refers to which specific parts of the brain carry out or relate to a specific function. Some researchers are investigating which areas of the brain manage pain, so that they can design and create more effective pain relieving drugs and therapies. Also other research includes time perception- and where specifically time is perceived.

Planning surgery- fMRI scans are very useful for diagnosing complex illnesses and conditions for example strokes and brain tumors. This has a great impact on the patient’s treatment as advanced scans like this one allows quick diagnosis and treatment. Doctors can then use the scan to establish precisely where they need to operate without damaging healthy areas of the brain.

Analysing emotions- fMRI scans are also useful for analysing emotions such as grief or happiness. Also fMRI scans could potentially be used as a lie detector by reading someone’s intentions. Also they can be used to discover is someone has seen a particular memory before, such as a specific room; this could be very useful in police investigations or government purposes in the future. It may be a long time yet however, before we do start to use fMRI scans for these purposes as they provoke lots of ethical and legal issues. 

Market research- questionnaires are carried to establish consumer’s opinions on marketing and product ideas. The fMRI scan could be used to look into consumers brains, getting an in-depth insight into their opinions and responses.

 

In the news...

fMRI scanners are making the homepage of The New Scientist this issue. Recently an fMRI scanner was used to explore brain activity of eight bilingual volunteers as they listened to the names of four animals: bull, horse, shark and duck, spoken in English. 

They wanted to identify activity related to meaning, they picked words that were as similar as possible- all four contain one syllable and belong to the theme of animals. 

They wanted to test to see if brain activity was related to the sound of the word of the meaning; by testing the system could determine the correct animal while participants listened to the Dutch version of the word. 

The system cleverly could identify which animal had been named, despite the system being set or 'trained' with patterns generated for English words. The word "horse" and the Dutch translation "paard" produced by the same pattern, this suggests that activity represented the words meaning. 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628914.500-mindreading-scan-locates-site-of-meaning-in-the-brain.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jc8URRxPIg