brain scans

Collaborative neuroimaging initiative BrainChart helps chart how brains change across the lifespan

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Source: Beth­le­hem et al (2020). A graph­i­cal sum­ma­ry of the nor­ma­tive tra­jec­to­ries of the medi­an (50th cen­tile) for each glob­al MRI phe­no­type, and key devel­op­men­tal mile­stones, as a func­tion of age (log-scaled).

For decades, growth charts have been used by pae­di­a­tri­cians as ref­er­ence tools. The charts allow health pro­fes­sion­als to plot and mea­sure a child’s height and weight from birth to young adult­hood. The per­centile scores they pro­vide, espe­cial­ly across mul­ti­ple vis­its, help doc­tors screen for con­di­tions such as obe­si­ty or inad­e­quate growth, which fall at the extremes of these scores.

Mean­while, it is pos­si­ble to mea­sure brain devel­op­ment with imag­ing tech­nolo­gies such as ultra­sound, mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (MRI) and com­put­erised tomog­ra­phy (CT). The devel­op­ment of these tech­nolo­gies has led to a wealth of research on how the brain changes, and each year, mil­lions of clin­i­cal brain scans are per­formed world­wide. Despite this progress, there are few mea­sures that are used to aid in mon­i­tor­ing brain devel­op­ment. Why? [Read more…] about Col­lab­o­ra­tive neu­roimag­ing ini­tia­tive Brain­Chart helps chart how brains change across the lifespan

Higher body mass index (BMI) linked to lower blood supply to the brain in large neuroimaging study

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Fig­ure 6 from the study, show­ing 3‑D ren­der­ings of cere­bral per­fu­sion aver­aged across nor­mal BMI (23), over­weight (29), and obese (37) 40-year-old men

Body weight has sur­pris­ing, alarm­ing impact on brain func­tion (Sci­ence Daily):

As a per­son­’s weight goes up, all regions of the brain go down in activ­i­ty and blood flow, accord­ing to a new brain imag­ing study in the Jour­nal of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease … sci­en­tists ana­lyzed over 35,000 func­tion­al neu­roimag­ing scans using sin­gle-pho­ton emis­sion com­put­er­ized tomog­ra­phy (SPECT) from more than 17,000 indi­vid­u­als to mea­sure blood flow and brain activ­i­ty. [Read more…] about High­er body mass index (BMI) linked to low­er blood sup­ply to the brain in large neu­roimag­ing study

Flexibility is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how scientists can reach different conclusions analyzing the same brain scans

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Neu­roimag­ing: Many Ana­lysts, Dif­fer­ing Results (Dana Foundation):

For decades, both the research and med­ical com­mu­ni­ties have relied on neu­roimag­ing tools like func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fMRI) to give them a win­dow into the liv­ing human brain. Such scans have pro­vid­ed unprece­dent­ed insights into the brain’s struc­ture and func­tion – and the field, as a whole, has used this tech­nique to bet­ter under­stand how the brain gives rise to thoughts, emo­tions, and actions. But as neu­roimag­ing tech­nol­o­gy has advanced, so have the dif­fer­ent analy­sis tools and the num­ber of ways one can eval­u­ate the result­ing data. Now, the results of unique research project, the Neu­roimag­ing Analy­sis, Repli­ca­tion, and Pre­dic­tion Study (NARPS), sug­gest that dif­fer­ent analy­ses can lead to strik­ing­ly dif­fer­ent results from the same data set.

[Read more…] about Flex­i­bil­i­ty is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how sci­en­tists can reach dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions ana­lyz­ing the same brain scans

McLaren and MindMaze race to the future

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F1’s McLaren Rac­ing Extends Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy Part­ner­ship With Mind­Maze (Sport­Techie):

“For­mu­la 1 team McLaren Rac­ing has signed a mul­ti-year part­ner­ship with Swiss neu­rotech­nol­o­gy firm Mind­Maze to con­tin­ue test­ing neu­rosens­ing tech­nol­o­gy on its drivers.

MindMaze’s com­bi­na­tion of vir­tu­al real­i­ty, motion cap­ture and EEG brain scans has pre­vi­ous­ly [Read more…] about McLaren and Mind­Maze race to the future

On Awe, Healthy Eating, Mental Health, Ethical Neurotech, and more

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Time to wrap-up anoth­er very active month with our Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter sum­ma­riz­ing excit­ing devel­op­ments in brain research, health­care and tech­nol­o­gy — plus a cou­ple fun brain teasers to spark curios­i­ty and innovation 🙂

New brain research:

New thinking about brain & mental health:

Emerging neurotech and digital brain health:

Finally, a couple fun brain teasers:

 

Have a excel­lent Halloween…

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

Awesome: Brain scans shed light on the brain networks supporting Awe

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When was the last time you expe­ri­enced awe?

Per­haps you were stopped in your tracks by a beau­ti­ful vista on a recent hike, or cap­ti­vat­ed by a paint­ing at your local art muse­um, or moved to tears at a con­cert or church. Or maybe you were just sit­ting on your couch breath­less­ly watch­ing an episode of Plan­et Earth. What­ev­er it was, you prob­a­bly weren’t think­ing much about your­self or your to-do list.

What makes awe so trans­port­ing, over­whelm­ing, even mys­ti­cal at times? Researchers explored this ques­tion in a recent study pub­lished in the jour­nal Human Brain Map­ping (details below) by exam­in­ing what the brain is doing when peo­ple have an awe expe­ri­ence. [Read more…] about Awe­some: Brain scans shed light on the brain net­works sup­port­ing Awe