 |
 |
Hi Judith, You gave us: > Friday April 10, 1998 > > Health Notes > > By LIDIA WASOWICZ UPI Science Writer > > BRAIN-IMAGING SYSTEM UNVEILED: The U.S. Department of Energy's Los > Alamos National Laboratory has developed a new medical instrument > doctors say will help them assess patients with brain injuries and > diseases and even help solve the mysteries of how the brain works. The > whole-head magnetoencephalography sensor system incorporates new > concepts that should reduce the cost of such instruments from about $3 > million to less than $500,000 and allow many more patients to benefit, > the researchers said. > > Magnetoencephalography, or MEG, is a method of measuring the tiny > magnetic fields produced when groups of the brain's 100 billion or so > cells, or neurons, are active. Those fields, a billion times smaller > than Earth's magnetic field and 10,000 times smaller than the field > surrounding a household wire, are generated by electrical currents that > result from thought, the sound of music, the impulse to move a muscle > and other types of brain activity. > > MEG scans can help neurosurgeons pinpoint areas associated with brain > injury or functional abnormalities such as epilepsy and help researchers > study such disorders as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and > schizophrenia. > > Hi Judith, I looked on the web and saw this : A new brain scanning technique--magnetoencephalography, or MEG--may soon be giving clues to the workings of the human brain by detecting weak and transient magnetic fields that arise when neurons fire. MEG can detect which neurons are firing and measure the strength of their activity. The skull and the brain's internal fluids distort the readings obtained by electroencephalography (EEG), but have no effect on the magnetic fields measured by MEG. MEG scans are easiest to interpret when the neural activity being studied is concentrated in isolated spots within the brain. The procedure is therefore being used to pinpoint those areas of the brain triggering epileptic seizures. When medical therapy proves ineffective, this enables neurosurgeons to excise the abnormal tissue and often cure the epilepsy. Another potential application of MEG technology is in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Scientists have found a very abnormal pattern of magnetic activity in Alzheimer's patients. However, MEG usage is presently permitted only for research, and is not licensed for clinical use. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Brain; Epilepsy; Research; Electroencephalogram (EEG) MDX Health Digest, Copyright by Medical Data Exchange (MDX) and then found some great sites to click on with lots of links: Howard Hughes Medical Institute http://www.hhmi.org/senses/a/a110.htm Neuro Scan Products http://www.neuro.com/neuroscan/10yrs.htm http://neurorad.ucsf.edu/research.html http://mcns10.med.nyu.edu/cases/RTcrani/RT.html http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/cogsci/ccave/P277/assess1.ht ml http://okabe.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~shu/research/research.html http://www.thriveonline.com/health/Library/CAD/abstract12403. Happy browsing........Murray . [log in to unmask]