The Hidden Spring, an ambitious book by Mark Solms, wants to sell you on two things. First, that it has the outlines of a theory of consciousness. Second, that other theories – on multiple counts – are looking for it in the wrong place.
Continue reading “My Brain…takes a big swing”
For many patients we can discover – or discount – physical causes of neurological problems ‘in real time’ with a range of imaging and other measurement techniques. Neuroimaging techniques are mainly children of the 20th century, and their development is ongoing in the 21st, but their roots stretch back through the 19th century. For example, photography and its ability to reproduce an enduring ‘objective’ image had a major impact when it was introduced and that extends to the study of the brain.
But a ‘normal’ camera operating in the visible (to us) spectrum of light can only see what is directly in front of it. Exposing a brain so you can see what is going on inside it carries risk. This means that – outside of an autopsy – doing so is only ever going to be justified in a small number of people. A way to investigate the structure and operation of the brain in a non-invasive way was needed.
Like MRI in general, functional MRI depends on differences in magnetic properties that are linked to physiology. The functional bit refers to the fact that MRI can be sensitive to something other than brain structure, like the types of scans covered in the posts linked above. fMRI is sensitive to brain activity. By ‘activity’ in this case we mean something different than the electrical or magnetic fields produced by neurons as measured, via fewer intermediary steps, by EEG or MEG. Activity in fMRI is not directly about neural activity, but about blood.
Continue reading “I see what you did there…a (very) brief history of imaging the brain: blood, BOLD and fMRI”
Neuro +/- Science +/- Fiction…is the tag-line. By way of explanation:
I’m a researcher in neuroscience, neurology and health. I’m (currently) interested in brains, imaging, evidence synthesis, global health and science communication. Check out My Publications for my professional work, the My Research tag for explainers. The contact page points to my presence on the socials.
Because they often make for bad science and – even worse – bad fiction, I have (more than) a few posts inspired by neuromyths.
I also like comics, science fiction, miniatures, philosophy, world-building, history and reading all the books. The Your Brain on… tag is for when I have a something neuro-ish or otherwise to say about one (or more) of these things.
I may also commit my own acts of fiction without warning.
NeurOnToSomething 
