Via Winchell Chung.

At the moment, this requires lying still inside a huge machine that draws as much power as a nuclear submarine. But you know how technological progress goes.

Originally shared by Ward Plunet

Brain Scanning Just Got Very Good—and Very Unsettling

HCP data has also enabled researchers to use a brain scan to predict how a person will perform on an intelligence test and during a memory or reading task. “This may be a bit scary,” admitted Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, during introductory remarks at the symposium. In order to collect of that data, the HCP team pioneered the use of a “multiband” approach, which involves scanning three sections of the brain at the same time instead of in series. This method has allowed radiologists to acquire high-resolution images up to 8 times as fast as they previously could using traditional MRI machines. “That gives us higher quality data; it also gives us a ton more data,” said Van Essen at the symposium.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/imaging/brain-scanning-just-got-very-good-and-very-unsettling