In the picture
Stimulating the brain to focus on a specific subject during MRI scans proved a challenge to German researchers, who combined two technologies to project images inside a scanner. Stuart Nathan reports.
The use of magnetic resonance imaging to study the brain is a rapidly-developing area which presents an unusual problem. To observe the brain 'working' it has to be stimulated, which means the test subject having to think — often about something very specific. Unfortunately the inside of an MRI scanner is a far from stimulating place.
To solve this problem, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering have developed a system which projects images to the person being scanned. The device could also have applications for imaging systems other than medical, according to lead researcher Stefan Riehemann.
The system, known as functional MRI (fMRI) combines two different scanning techniques. It provides the normal MRI images of bone and soft tissue, showing the positions of the various structures within the brain. But it also follows the concentration of oxygen in blood and tissues, showing which parts of the brain are active at the time of the scan.
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