Using magnetic fields to probe your brainScientists are using tiny magnetic fields around your head
Using magnetic fields to probe your brainScientists are using tiny magnetic fields around your head to understand more about how the brain works. Researchers at University College London are measuring these fields, created by the electrical activity of neurons in the brain, using a technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) to build images of where they are coming from within the brain’s outer layer of grey matter – the cortex. Subjects wear specially-designed 3D printed head casts to undergo scans, as in the bottom two pictures. The cortex is around 3-4mm thick and has up to six layers of neurons, but their function and how they work together is largely unknown. The top image shows a slice through the brain with the top layer of the grey matter in blue and the bottom layer in red. MEG is now advanced enough to start to understand in which layers of cortex different signals originate, which is exciting as we don’t fully understand how different areas of the brain communicate with one another. Even understanding how the different parts of the brain communicate during a simple task like pressing a button would give us big insights into how the brain works.Top image: Holly RossiterBottom images: Mark LimRead more -- source link