NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters Health) -- A new technique for mapping human
brain function was introduced this week at a briefing in Washington, DC. "This
refined new product may unlock untold secrets of how the brain acts and
responds," Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) told attendees of the briefing, which was
sponsored by the National Foundation for Functional Brain Imaging.
Congress has appropriated $20 million to support medical research with the
brain imaging technique, he added. The procedure combines
magnetoencephalography, which identifies the source of brain cell activity, with
functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides highly detailed
images of the brain as it works.
Dr. Edward Flynn, director of the National Foundation for Functional Brain
Imaging, announced that one of the foundation's goals is to use
magnetoencephalography and functional MRI "to provide a new tool for the
diagnosis of mental illness." The foundation is currently developing software
that combines data from the brain imaging techniques to create a
four-dimensional "movie" of brain function, Flynn said.
Flynn reported that research programs at several hospitals and
universities are already using the combination brain imaging technique to study
schizophrenia, epilepsy, stroke, autism and brain damage due to chemotherapy in
children with leukemia.
