fMRI tagged posts

“Alexa, play back that dream I had about Kirsten last week.” That’s a command that may not be too far off in the future, as researchers close in on technology that can tap into our minds and retrieve the imagery of our thoughts.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore and the Chinese University of Hong Kong reported last week that they have developed a process capable of generating video from brain scans. The research is published on the arXiv preprint server.

Using a process called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers Jiaxin Qing, Zijiao Chen and Juan Helen Zhou coupled data retrieved through imaging with the deep learning model Stable Diffusion to create smooth, high quality videos.

Successful recreations of still imagery gleaned from brain ...

First-in-the-world study suggests that even brief exposure to air pollution has rapid impacts on the brain. A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria has shown that common levels of traffic pollution can impair human brain function in only a matter of hours.

The peer-reviewed findings, published in the journal Environmental Health, show that just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust causes a decrease in the brain’s functional connectivity – a measure of how The study provides the first evidence in humans, from a controlled experiment, of altered brain network connectivity induced by air pollution.

“For many decades, scientists...

As we age, our brains typically undergo a slow process of atrophy, causing less robust communication between various brain regions, which leads to declining memory and other cognitive functions. But a rare group of older individuals called “superagers” have been shown to learn and recall novel information as well as a 25-year-old. Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have now identified the brain activity that underlies superagers’ superior memory. “This is the first time we have images of the function of superagers’ brains as they actively learn and remember new information,” says Alexandra Touroutoglou, Ph.D...

“We’re facing a tremendous epidemic with teen anxiety and depression, and we wanted to find an early marker that predicted the development of anxiety, depression and attentional symptoms,” said the study’s lead author, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli. She’s a professor of psychology and director of the Northeastern University Biomedical Imaging Center, in Boston.

In a small sample of less than 100 children without known mental health concerns, the research team found that connections in certain areas of the brain seen at age 7 could help predict mental health concerns that developed four years later.

“The study could have great clinical implications,” Whitfield-Gabrieli said...